Mitigation of Climate Change

Working Group III focuses on climate change ‘mitigation’, the ways to prevent further climate change, either by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases that we emit into the atmosphere or removing them from the atmosphere.

Greenhouse gases can come from many places in society, which means there are lots of ways to reduce or prevent them. Working Group III scientific experts prepared a new report that examines the options we have to tackle climate change.

The scientific topics covered by Working Group III include:

• What the future could look like, depending on how many emissions we can reduce or remove from the atmosphere.
• Where we are now and what we could do to achieve the Paris Agreement goals (to keep global warming below 2 degrees, and to pursue efforts to stay below 1.5 degrees).
• How the way that we live impacts climate change, and how we can reduce emissions through the way we choose to live.
• Where emissions come from and how they can be reduced, in areas such as:
  • Energy – electricity, fossil fuels, and renewable energy
  • Land – agriculture (which releases emissions into the atmosphere) and forests (which can absorb emissions from the atmosphere)
  • Buildings and Cities – the materials and technologies we use to build can create emissions and/or help to reduce emissions
  • Transport – emissions are released into the atmosphere when we travel (e.g. by car or plane) and there are ways that we can reduce these emissions (e.g. by using electric cars, or transport that releases fewer emissions)

• The ways that different governments can work together within nations and internationally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• How getting finances right is an important part of preventing global warming, and where money might be best allocated to support a future with lower emissions.
• The technology that could support us to prevent global warming.
• How preventing climate change can be achieved in a way that supports our other goals on planet earth, such as reducing poverty, improving biodiversity, and eradicating malnutrition.

The Sixth Assessment Report

Working Group III’s assessment is just one part of the report. We will be looking at all of the new science and evidence since the last (Fifth) assessment report was released. There are some exciting, new topics in this report. One of these is a chapter on the social aspects of tackling climate change. It will look at how the way we live (our consumption and demand for products) has an impact on greenhouse gas emissions and identify ways that we can reduce our emissions from this consumption. There are many things that impact the products we use and how we live, including culture, social norms/practices and behavior.