ABSTRACT

Dr. Ruane will describe key messages and my perspectives as a Core Writing Team author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Synthesis Report (SYR), which was released March 20th after an arduous Approval Session where every sentence was approved unanimously by 195 countries. The Synthesis Report is the result of a process that boiled down more than 8000 pages of underlying assessments (from 3 Working Groups and 3 Special Reports) into a 10-page summary and 7 figures. The Synthesis Report author team was charged with connecting key messages from across all IPCC reports, allowing for more direct and cohesive that place the physical, risk, and response challenges in context. Overall the messages are clear: current trends are incompatible with a sustainable, equitable world, but we have the chance to shift direction and reduce the amount of climate disruption that current and especially future generations will have to battle. The longer we wait, the sharper the turn that will be necessary to reach temperature targets and the more losses and damages that will occur along the way. The report also identifies solutions that we can implement today, as well as constraints that we can clear to enable more effective and equitable climate action.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Alex Ruane is Research Physical Scientist and co-Director of the Climate Impacts Group at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. His primary focus is on developing and demonstrating ways to make climate information useful for societal impact and risk management planning. He served as Coordinating Lead Author for Working Group I Chapter 12 ('Climate change information for regional impact and for risk assessment') of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR6): and was an author on the Core Writing Team for the AR6 Synthesis Report released March 20th, 2023. Alex serves as the Science Coordinator and Climate Team Leader for the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), an international community of 1200+ climate, crop, livestock, economics and nutrition experts working on current and future challenges to food systems and broader food security. He also leads groups at the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and the UN Disaster Risk Reduction Office on connecting climate information with nature and society in the context of complex systems, connected risks and disasters.