IPCC releases Climate Change 2021 Report

Last month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their latest report, “Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis”.  Totalling nearly 3,000 pages, it is the first major international assessment of climate change research since 2014.  The report confirms previous assessments by IPCC but also includes some new elements, such as:

• A more accurate projection on global warming as a result of improved datasets, recent progress in climate science and more detailed regional research assessments.
• A focus on the reduction of all greenhouse gases, not just CO2.
  Global Dairy Platform (GDP) examined the report and reviewed the likely impact for the global dairy sector. GDP summarises that the key message is that immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in all greenhouse gas emissions are required to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5°C – 2.0°C during the 21st century, as noted in the Paris Agreement.

In addition, the IPCC report specifically references methane as a critical GHG in the mitigation process, but it also invests considerable time acknowledging the behaviour of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP).  The report will undoubtedly result in greater scrutiny of the livestock sector by both governments and stakeholders, who will be looking for concrete actions and progress on emissions reduction.  And the specific recommendations on the role of methane emissions are likely to provide further grounds to challenge the livestock sector.

Dairy Global Platform produced an initial analysis of this report which you can read by clicking here.  As a global dairy sector it is now more important than ever that we measure sustainability progress through the DSF as well as get involved with the Pathways to Dairy Net Zero initiative.