IPCC report urges government, investors to step up finance for global climate action

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urged governments, investors, financial sector to "play their part" in global climate action, as it laid out "multiple, feasible and effective options" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its latest report published March 20.

"There is sufficient global capital to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions if existing barriers are reduced. Increasing finance to climate investments is important to achieve global climate goals," the IPCC said in a report titled Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers. "Political commitment, coordinated policies, international cooperation, ecosystem stewardship and inclusive governance are all important for effective and equitable climate action."

The IPCC's sixth assessment report, which is in its fourth and final instalment, was focused more on policy pathways rather than science.

"Increased finance, technology and international cooperation are critical enablers for accelerated climate action. If climate goals are to be achieved, both adaptation and mitigation financing would need to increase many-fold," IPCC said in a statement.

IPCC's 2018 report had indicated that CO2 emissions needed to be cut by almost 50% by 2030, compared with 2010 levels, to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.

"There are tried and tested policy measures that can work to achieve deep emissions reductions and climate resilience if they are scaled up and applied more widely," the new report added.

Rapid reductions

The UN body, which represents the world's leading climate scientists, said increased climate finance, climate resilient development are essential to limit temperatures to above 1.5 degrees Celsius, with "deep, rapid and sustained" greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed across all sectors.

The report urged governments, bankers and regulators to do more to boost funding for climate investments.

"Accelerated climate action will only come about if there is a many -fold increase in finance. Insufficient and misaligned finance is holding back progress," Christopher Trisos, one of the report's authors, said.

Global carbon dioxide emissions have continued to rise in recent years. Global CO2 reached all-time highs of 36.8/GigatonCO2e in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency but this growth was lower than initially feared due to a rise in clean energy deployment.

Increased usage of clean energy sources such as renewables, electric vehicles, and heat pumps helped prevent an additional 550mtCO2e, according to the Paris-based agency.

The IPCC and other groups have described the 2020s as a decisive decade for climate, with the global atmospheric concentration of CO2 continuing to rise annually, despite a widening pool of countries and companies setting targets to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

The report summarizes the latest climate science and is signed off by 195 of the world's governments. The body's findings are significant in informing governments' long-term climate goals and can help to underpin policy frameworks governing energy, industry, transport and agriculture.