REPORTS AND PAPERS
In 1988 NASA scientist James Hansen warned lawmakers in the US Senate of the looming dangers presented by global warming, which humans were accelerating. In the same year the United Nations (UN) and the World Meteorological Organization (WHO) formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to report to world leaders on the science of climate change.
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) and 5th (2013-2014) with the 6th due in 2022.
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 — every nation on earth — signed on, including the U.S.
Unfortunately in the summer of 2017 President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement. That takes effect on November 4, 2020.
In 2018, U.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.
Also in 2018, came the Fourth National Climate Assessment Report, a U.S. report written for the president every four years. This report focused heavily on climate change’s impact on the American economy.
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.
2018 REPORTS & PAPERS
Global CO2 emissions hit record high in 2018, as Greenland ice melt goes into ‘overdrive’
Carbon emissions to hit all-time high, says report
United Nations COP24
COP24 Reflections
Climate change: Five things we’ve learnt from COP24
What was agreed at COP24 in Poland and why did it take so long?
US teamed up with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to weaken language supporting landmark climate report
Special Coverage of COP24, the UN Climate Change Conference
Climate Change in the American Mind: December 2018
The Energy 202: ‘Year from hell’ means more Americans are taking climate change personally, new polling shows
More Americans Than Ever Believe in Climate Change, No Matter What Trump Says
Politics & Global Warming
Public Opinion: Is there an economy-environment tradeoff?
Climate Concerns Increase; Most Republicans Now Acknowledge Change
More Americans and most Republicans now believe in climate change
The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change
New Lancet report: The Global Syndemic: Uniting Actions to Address Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change
Weekend reading: The Lancet / EAT Forum report on healthy and sustainable diets
Eating meat has “dire” consequences for the planet, says report
Major Health Study Shows Benefits of Combating Climate Change
8 ways the climate apocalypse could affect your health
Study Warns of Cascading Health Risks From the Changing Climate
2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment Report
Melville House Published the Climate Report Because Trump Didn’t Want To
The White House Plan to Change Climate Science
Investors Sound Alarm Bells on Climate. Are You Listening?
How to Understand the U.S. Climate Report
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accelerate Like a ‘Speeding Freight Train’ in 2018
Where Will Climate Change Impact The US? Everywhere.
We broke down what climate change will do, region by region
Climate change report: bad news for agriculture
How to Understand the U.S. Climate Report
The White House Talking Points About the National Climate Assessment Are Demonstrably False
President Trump Overlooks an Investment Opportunity in Climate Change
3 charts: What Trump doesn’t want you to know about the climate emergency
Climate Change Will Cost Taxpayers Billions In Near Future, Federal Report Shows
U.S. Climate Report Warns of Damaged Environment and Shrinking Economy
Climate-driven declines in arthropod abundance restructure a rainforest food web
Our vanishing world: Insects
Decreases in global beer supply due to extreme drought and heat
Heat and Drought Could Threaten World Beer Supply
2018 IPCC: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report
The World Is Moving Toward Net Zero Because of a Single Sentence
The IPCC Climate Change Report: Why It Matters to Everyone on the Planet
Can Civilization Survive What’s Coming?
New UN Report Predicts Climate Crisis by 2040. Now What?
‘We Fear for Our Children:’ Alaska Natives Speak out in Climate Change Report
Saving the Paris Agreement
IPCC Frequently Asked Questions PDF
6 Things Children Born This Year Will Experience In Their 20s
The IPCC says we need to buy less meat, milk, cheese and butter
The Latest U.N. Gap Report Shows Which Countries Are Falling Behind on Climate
Will We Survive Climate Change?
What Is Donald Trump’s Response to the U.N.’s Dire Climate Report?
How Climate Change Will Impact Major Cities Across the U.S.
How Climate Change Will Impact Major Cities Across the U.S.
What U.S. Cities Facing Climate Disaster Risks Are Least Prepared?
Emissions Gap Report 2018
China pledges to strengthen climate plan
Trump makes it official: U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate accord
Countries vowed to cut carbon emissions. They aren’t even close to their goals, U.N. report finds
US governors, mayors, businesses, commit to Paris climate pact goals
The Human Influence on Hurricane Florence
Hurricane Florence’s Unusual Extremes Worsened by Climate Change
Climate model shows large-scale wind and solar farms in the Sahara increase rain and vegetation
Green energy combats climate change and brings life to the desert
Global Climate Report
Climate change: IPCC report warns of ‘irreversible’ impacts of global warming
Assessing the Global Climate in September 2018
Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers
New Analysis: Curbing Pesticides Key to Reversing Insect Apocalypse
More Than 40 Percent of World’s Insect Species on Fast-track to Extinction
Draft Environmental Impact Statement for The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule for Model Year 2021–2026 Passenger Cars and Light Trucks
7-Degree Global Temperature Rise Is Inevitable, Trump Administration Presumes (and Shrugs It Off)
Macroscopic heat release in a molecular solar thermal energy storage system
Scientists Create Liquid Fuel That Can Store The Sun’s Energy For Up to 18 Years
Scientists Reveal Strange Molecule That Can Store Sun’s Energy For 18 Years
Turning Solar Energy Into Liquid Fuel
Yale Climate Opinion Maps 2018
Red Tides of a Different Sort— Although Just as Polluting
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
Quantifying excess deaths related to heatwaves under climate change scenarios: A multicountry time series modelling study
07/01/18
Study sees dramatic rise in heatwave deaths by 2080
How big meat and dairy companies are heating up the planet
Meat and dairy companies to surpass oil industry as world’s biggest polluters, report finds
Arctic Report Card: Update for 2018
01/01/18