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Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change


IPCC   IPCC
IPCC Assessment Reports:
First (1990)
1992 supplementary report
Second (1995)
Third (2001)
Fourth (2007)
Fifth (2014)
Sixth (2022)
IPCC Special Reports:
Emissions Scenarios (2000)
Renewable energy sources (2012)
Extreme events and disasters (2012)
Global Warming of 1.5 °C (2018)
Climate Change & Land (2019)
Ocean & Cryosphere (2019)

UNFCCC | WMO | UNEP

The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15)was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to "deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments" to deal with climate change.

Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require "deep emissions reductions" and "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society." Furthermore, the report finds that "limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, "Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050." The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.

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