2018 REPORTS AND PAPERS

In 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen warned lawmakers in the U.S. Senate of the looming dangers presented by global warming which humans were accelerating. The same year, the United Nations (UN) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to report to world leaders on the science of climate change.

Two years later, in 1990, the First IPCC Assessment Report (FAR) was published, underlining the importance of climate change as a challenge with global consequences and requiring international cooperation. It was followed by the 2nd (1995), 3rd (2001), 4th (2007), 5th (2013-2014), and 6th (2021-2023) assessment reports. 

A LITTLE POLITICAL BACKGROUND

• U.S. signs the Paris Agreement

  On December 12, 2015 in Paris at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, the now-infamous Paris Agreement was written with an objective to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future. It entered into force on November 4, 2016 by which time it had been ratified by 55 countries (accounting for 55% of global emissions). Within the following two years 197 countries signed on, including the U.S.

• U.S. withdraws from the Paris Agreement

  In the summer of 2017 President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Polls show the majority of voters opposed the withdrawal. In response, 24 governors formed the U.S. Climate Alliance of members committed to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

A LITTLE CLIMATE BACKGROUND

• The year 2018 saw record-breaking greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, with global average CO2 levels surpassing 407 ppm for the first time in modern records. 
• The year was also marked by extreme weather events, including hurricanes Florence and Michael, Typhoon Mangkhut, and heatwaves and wildfires in Europe, Japan, and the US, which resulted in significant damage and loss of life. 
• The Arctic continued to experience warming at a rate faster than the global average, with significant loss of sea ice and continued mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet. 
• S. carbon emissions surged even as coal plants closed, rising by 3.4 percent just in that year alone, the biggest increase in eight years. 

KEY REPORTS

• In November 2018, came the Fourth National Climate Assessment Report, a U.S. report written for the president every four years, focusing heavily onclimate change’s impact on the American economy. NCA4 is the fourth in a series of National Climate Assessments, following NCA1 (2000), NCA2 (2009), and NCA3 (2014). The report is a product of the S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which includes 13 federal agencies, according to NOAA. 
• Released in October 2018, the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5˚C emphasized the urgent need to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change. It detailed the consequences of 1.5°C and 2°C warming, highlighting the differences in impacts on ecosystems, human health, and extreme weather events. The report also outlined pathways for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to achieve this goal. 
• Released in March 2019 (and covering 2018), The WMO State of the Global Climate highlighted record sea level rise, high land and ocean temperatures, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events. It emphasized the accelerating nature of climate change and the need for continued monitoring and action. 

A TIMELINE

A stunning timeline, following our extraordinary lack of progress since 1988, was written by Paul Bledsoe and published in the New York Times on December 29, 2018. Many of the reports and papers referenced in this article appear in this CCR section.

That piece was almost immediately followed by Carbon Brief publishing a list of 2018 climate-change related papers most featured in the media. The infographic below shows which ones made it into the Top 10.

CREDIT: CARBON BRIEF