Commentary on the IPCC 6th Assessment Report Working Group 3 Report Part 3

The 56th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) General Assembly and Working Group 3 (WG3) were held from 21 March to 4 April, and approved the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the 6th Assessment Report (AR6) WG3 Report and the main body of the report. As emphasised at COP26 last year, even if countries achieve their current nationally determined reduction targets (NDCs), the world will not be able to reach even the 2°C target, let alone the 1.5°C target. In response, the WG3 report indicated in strong terms that immediate and dramatic systemic change, including social transformation, is essential. Furthermore, the WG3 report shows that there are  lifestyle, policy, and institutional reforms that can achieve this goal, and that it is possible to achieve it without impeding economic development. 

In the third of this commentary series of WG3 report, following the overview section in April, IGES Integrated Sustainability Centre Research Leader Eric Zusman, one of the lead authors of the Chapter 17: Accelerating the transition in the context of sustainable development, commented on the individual sections. What is the linkages between mitigation, adaptation and the SDGs, synergies and trade-offs, and actions to maximise synergies?