What to Expect from the Next Major Global Climate Report

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change grabbed the world’s attention in 2018 when it released a sobering report that warned—in no uncertain terms—world leaders needed to take drastic and immediate steps to blunt the most catastrophic impacts of global warming.

Policymakers responded with a range of emotion, from denial to outrage. But the message was clear. “It’s like a deafening, piercing smoke alarm going off in the kitchen,” Erik Solheim, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, told The Washington Post at the time.

Next month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—or IPCC for short—plans to release another report. And again, scienti