The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Synthesis Report states there are “multiple, feasible and effective options” to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, but that the world is currently well off track. So just how can businesses respond to this latest scientific report?The IPCC has today (20 March) the fourth and final installment of the sixth assessment report (AR6). The body of the world’s leading climate scientists’ latest workings combines the key findings of the preceding three main sections. Read edie’s coverage here.

The IPCC’s report today reiterates that the world is not on track to achieve either of the Paris Agreement’s temperature pathways – 1.5C and 2C – with stated policies likely to result in a 2.8C trajectory even if delivered in full. At this level of warming, many places will not be “liveable”, the IPCC has stated, warning of increasing risks such as coastal flooding and food and water insecurity that would put up to 3.3 billion livelihoods at risk.

However, the report also notes that the methods and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to deliver the 1.5C pathway “are available now”, but that the pace and scale of what has been delivered so far are “insufficient”.

With “every increment of warming” causing “rapidly escalating hazards”, including wildfires, flooding and severe drought, the report warns that the climate crisis will continue to drive food and water insecurity and conflicts.

Also reiterated is the fact that action permitted by the private sector is likely to undermine national commitments. The IPCC has stated, once again, that the current pipeline of fossil fuel infrastructure alone would result in a likely temperature pathway of 2.8C – 4C.

While the formation of effective and coherent policy can take months, if not years, to implement, businesses proved when responding to the pandemic that they can pivot quickly. The report has been labeled as a “final warning” on the climate crisis but green groups have stated that it can also act as a “how-to guide to defuse the climate time bomb”.

With this in mind, edie outlines some of the key warnings issued in the report and how businesses can begin to respond in order to accelerate decarbonisation and improve long-term resiliency against a changing climate.

1) Businesses should revisit decarbonisation targets

Responding to the IPCC report, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said a “quantum leap” in climate action and that countries, particularly wealthier ones, should seriously look at pushing net-zero targets forward to 2040.

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