What the IPCC Report Means for Climate Action
What the IPCC Report Means for Climate Action
What the IPCC Report Means for Climate Action
by Kamal Kapadia
I’m a hopeful person, but my optimism was temporarily punctured when I read the new IPCC report on climate change. It’s not a pretty story, friends.
First, some context.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published the first part of its sixth assessment report (AR6) that summarizes “the physical science basis” for climate change. The report, based on more than 14,000 studies, is approved by 195 governments. It is the most comprehensive summary of climate science to date.
Here’s why it stopped me in my tracks:
The report shows with stark clarity that we—humanity—have set in motion changes to the Earth’s oceans, ice, and lands that are unprecedented and, frankly, terrifying.
In the best-case scenario of aggressive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, we are most likely to pass 1.5 degrees Celsius of average warming in the 2030s. Things get decidedly hairier if we cross 1.5 C of warming, though we’ll experience dangerous impacts at 1.5 C too.
Even a moderate emissions scenario could see us exceeding 3 or 4 degrees Celsius of warming thanks to carbon cycle feedbacks, like the extra warming caused by methane released from thawing permafrost.
Global surface temperature changes (degrees Celsius) relative to 1850-1900, under the five core emissions scenarios used in AR6. Source: IPCC (2021) Figure SPM.8a. The light blue line represents a “best-case” scenario.
Note that I said my dismay was short-lived.
If anything, this report is a challenge to us all—I now feel even more motivated to act. Why? Because the scientific community is telling us, with more certainty than ever, that we can stabilize temperatures within about 10 years of achieving net-zero emissions. In other words: We can still do this.
My chief sources of hope come from three interconnected virtuous cycles:
Cleantech and market innovations, which have made technologies like solar PV the cheapest source of electricity ever;
a financial sector awakening—more money than ever is flowing into climate tech and financial giants like Blackrock are taking significant steps; and
burgeoning governmental action—as of May 2021, some 131 countries had adopted or announced net-zero goals, covering about 73% of global emissions.
If we continue to pull these three levers in synchrony and to maximal effect, we most likely can stabilize the climate.
If we reduce our GHG emissions starting this decade, and emissions reach net-zero in the 2050s, while we will temporarily overshoot 1.5 C, temperatures will probably fall back below 1.5 C later this century.
So what will it take to literally save the planet?
Here are my five main takeaways:
There is no substitute for rapid emissions reductions and now is vastly preferable to later.
Near-term emissions cuts can dramatically reduce the rate of dangerous warming. A leaked draft of an upcoming IPCC report says we must close coal and gas-fired plants within this decade to “avoid climate breakdown.” We. Have. To. Stop. Burning. Fossil. Fuels. Period.
Carbon removal is going to be essential, with important caveats.
There is no scenario in the IPCC report in which we can achieve 1.5C longer-term without carbon removal. We desperately need investment and innovation in this sector.
However, beware of attempts to use it to delay emissions reductions (I’m looking at you, fossil fuel industry) and be mindful of the dangers inherent in some solutions—climate change-fueled wildfires are wiping out sequestration projects already.
Methane matters, but counter to common belief, we can (kind-of-sort-of) afford to delay methane emissions reductions but not carbon dioxide emissions reductions.
Why? Because methane is a short-lived GHG whereas the extra carbon dioxide that stays in the air lasts for thousands and even tens of thousands of years.
For the best explanation of why this matters see Dr. Zeke Hausfather’s Twitter thread, and hear him discuss the implications in this panel discussion hosted by Terra.do (the methane Q is addressed at 52:08). Of course, we should rapidly decrease both. But it’s not enough to stop the methane leaking from the Permian Basin; we need to cease drilling for oil and gas entirely.
Adaptation and resilience are more important than ever.
Climate change is already fueling dangerous changes in local weather around the world. We will see a worsening of extreme events “unprecedented in the observational record” even at just 1.5 C of warming. And some changes, like sea level rise, are irreversible.
Yet our defining feature as humans is our capacity to adapt. Can we do it at the scale we need? The answer is up to us.
Climate justice has to be at the core of our efforts.
We are peering down the barrel of climate change-driven human displacement and possible conflict the likes of which we’ve never seen. To prevent socio-political chaos, we have to urgently build social and economic safety nets, have humane immigration policies everywhere, dramatically increase rich countries’ support for climate action in poorer countries, and ensure that the transition to clean energy doesn’t leave some people worse off, and, instead, lifts people out of poverty.
In closing, I’ll leave you with a video that is a metaphor for our times: The autorickshaw is our climate system and the man is humanity. The situation is dicey, but some quick thinking and brave action can save the day.
🎙Startup Series
This week, Jason talked with Dan White, Co-Founder & CEO of Clean Crop Technologies. Clean Crop Technologies provides a solution for solid food supply chains, which currently choose between killing pathogens and maintaining the health of crops. Eliminating this trade-off, Clean Crop's product treats pathogens while leaving the food intact.
✨Highlights
MCJ Collective News
♻️Rheaply, a company focused on the circular economy, announced the hiring of their new COO, Connie Kim. Learn more about her and what Rheaply is up to here.
⚡️Nitricity Raises $5 Million Seed Round to Help Farmers Produce Their Own Nitrogen Fertilizer. Energy Impact Partners led the round, and we participated alongside our friends at Lowercarbon Capital, and Fine Structure Ventures.
💨 Congrats to portfolio company Noya on the completion of their first commercial installation, which is actively pulling CO2 from the sky in the San Francisco Bay Area. Noya is also hiring across their engineering roles, check out their open positions here!
🧇Planet FWD is hiring a Head of Business Development!
🌱Congrats to SINAI on their $10m seed round, led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Ajax Strategies, Valo Ventures, High Alpha, Climactic, Afore Capital, Climate Capital, and MCJ Collective (that’s us!).
Climate Jobs
For more positions and openings, check out the #climatejobs channel in Slack.
Product Manager job opportunity at good.lab (job listing)
Microsoft is hiring various positions across their Energy & Sustainability group
The Barr Foundation Climate team is pleased to announce that we are launching a search for a Senior Program Officer for Clean Energy
Amazon Sustainability looking for a Sr. Program Manager focused on the Circular Economy
Climate Policy Initiative is looking for a Program Assistant role supporting our incubator (the Lab) and several financial/policy analyst positions
eIQMobility / Nextera Energy Resources is hiring software engineers at all levels
ChargeLab is hiring a Solutions Engineer to help deploy more EV charging infrastructure and software
Energetic Insurance is hiring on the development team for data science and software engineers
Sunlight Financial, a leading residential solar lender, is looking for someone to help develop and execute a strategy around strategic software partnerships
Closed Loop Leadership Fund in New York is hiring a Senior Associate to join their investment team
KoBold Metals is hiring across software/data/ML engineering, data science, geoscience, technical product management, operations, and technical recruiting
Climate Events
For more community events, check out the #events channel in Slack or the MCJ Calendar on Luma.
🌉MCJ SF Bay-Area Monthly Meet-up (8/15 at 2:30 pm ET RSVP)
Rama Myers and Catherine Lee are hosting another monthly SF meetup to connect, ideate, share ideas and get help from like-minded friends.
🧑💻MCJ AMA: Capturing Carbon from Semi Trucks with Remora's Paul Gross (8/16 at 12 pm - 8/17 at 7 pm ET RSVP)
MCJ Collective recently announced our investment in Remora, a startup working to capture carbon emissions from semi-trucks. Over the course of 48 hours, ask Paul Gross anything in the #mcj-ama channel in slack.
🎙OnDeck Speaker Series: Jason Jacobs & Josh Felser (8/17 at 11 am PT RSVP)
Join Jason and Freestyle Capital co-founder Josh Felser in a Speaker Series presented by OnDeck to discuss working in climate. Please note, this is an OnDeck event and we have been given permission to invite those in the MCJ community.
📚MCJ Bookclub (8/17 at 6 pm PT RSVP)
Our next book will be The New Climate War by Michael Mann! As with the last two books, we’ll break it into sections and meet every 2 weeks to discuss.
📋Member Orientation (8/19 at 12 pm ET RSVP)
Hosted by MCJ’s own Thai Nguyen, to help onboard recently joined and existing members to the community. Attendees can expect a casual conversation about how to navigate the community.
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