Interpretation of IPCC SR1.5 on cryosphere change and its impacts

doi:10.12006/j.issn.1673-1719.2019.139

Abstract

Abstract:

The cryosphere is highly sensitive to climate change among the five major spheres of climate system. Past decades, with the anthropogenic climate warming, has seen an accelerated retreat of the global cryosphere (including mountain glacier, frozen soil, snow cover and sea ice, etc.), which has also seriously affected global climate system and regional water resources, eco-environment, socio-economic development and human well-being. The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5℃ (SR1.5) was issued in October 2018, it systematically presented basic scientific understanding of 1.5℃ global warming above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. In the cryosphere and related aspects, SR1.5 mainly projected some cryospheric changes (mainly sea ice, permafrost) and their impacts on the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere and anthroposphere at a global average warming of 1.5℃ and higher levels of warming. It also focused on many climate change hotspots and tipping points under different global temperature goals, most of which are related to the cryosphere. As the temperature continues to rise, the risks to the cryosphere and its associated hotspots and tipping points will continue to increase. Limiting global warming to 1.5℃ compared to 2℃ or higher level is projected to lower the risks. However, frankly, SR1.5 has not given deep attention to the change and its impacts. In the future, it is necessary to deepen the research on the changes of the cryosphere and its related impacts and adaptation under different climatic scenarios, especially with the global 1.5℃ and 2℃ temperature goals and tipping points, thereby to explore a more sustainable and resilient pathway in the cryosphere affected regions.

Key words: Global warming of 1.5℃, Cryosphere, Impacts, Sustainable development

Bo SU,Xue-Jie GAO,Cun-De XIAO. Interpretation of IPCC SR1.5 on cryosphere change and its impacts[J]. Climate Change Research, 2019, 15(4): 395-404.

Figures/Tables 4

Fig. 1 Projected changes in mean temperature and mean precipitation at 1.5℃ and 2℃ of global warming compared to the pre-industrial period (1861-1880), and the difference between 1.5℃ and 2℃ of global warming [1]

Table 1 The changes in cryosphere and its related elements under 1.5℃ and 2℃ of global warming

Table 2 Emergence and intensity of cryosphere-related hotspots under different degrees of global warming [1]

Table 3 Cryosphere-related tipping points under different global temperature goals [1]

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