The New School’s Urban Systems Lab Contributes to Historic Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report
Climate change is causing more dangerous and widespread natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, fires, and earthquakes, affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. In the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “AR6 Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”, scientists, including researchers from The New School’s Urban System Lab (USL), assessed the vulnerability of social-economic and natural systems to climate change, negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it.
“It’s clear that cities can be drivers of climate solutions. Our report shows that more and more cities are developing adaptation plans. But many of these have yet to be implemented. Underlining the importance of acting now to bring climate resilience squarely into urban development plans and actions,” said Timon McPhearson, Professor of Urban Ecology, Director of the Urban Systems Lab, and a Lead Author for the IPCC.
The (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies.
“This report is a dire warning about the consequences of inaction. It shows that climate change is a grave and mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet. Our actions today will shape how people adapt and nature responds to increasing climate risks,” said Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC in a press release. “This report recognizes the interdependence of climate, biodiversity and people and integrates natural, social and economic sciences more strongly than earlier IPCC assessments,” “It emphasizes the urgency of immediate and more ambitious action to address climate risks. Half measures are no longer an option.”
Urban Systems Lab visiting scholar Luis Ortiz worked closely with McPhearson and members of the IPCC Working Group II to develop new heat risk assessment models to evaluate the health and economic impact of air conditioning in urban areas. Lab members Zbigniew Grabowski, Pablo Herreros-Cantis, Christopher Kennedy, Ahmed Mustafa, Veronica Olivotto, Luis Ortiz, Jennifer Ventrella also contributed to developing a synthesis table for the report, “Urban Climate Resilient Development”. The table presents ways nature-based solutions can contribute to climate resilient development by addressing a range of social-ecological and technological challenges from temperature, air quality, and stormwater regulation, to mitigating the impacts of coastal and riverine flooding, to enhancing water provisioning, food production and productivity.
“This report shows that climate resilient development is about successfully navigating the complex interactions between social, ecological and technology infrastructure systems so that adaptation action in one area does not have adverse effects elsewhere,” said McPhearson. “This is really about bringing resilience and sustainability actions together to limit trade-offs and create opportunities that accelerate progress towards a safer, fairer world. But there’s limited opportunity to act. The greater the warming, the fewer options will have for effective climate resilient development. We can’t delay action and must make actions and plans now.”