The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s working group on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (WGIII) met to finalize a summary of its latest report, which targets policymakers. Convening online, the 56th session of the IPCC (IPCC-56) and WGIII-14 met from 21 March-4 April 2022, concluding three days after its scheduled end.

Without stronger policies GHG emissions are projected to rise beyond 2025, leading to a median global warming of 3.2°C by 2100.

WGIII is responsible for assessing methods for reducing GHGs and removing them from the atmosphere. WGIII’s outputs – the technical report on climate change mitigation and the Summary of Policymakers (SPM) – constitute formal scientific input to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and are used by government and the private sector to inform their actions to achieve climate goals.

Key findings of the WGIII report, ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change,’ include:

• net anthropogenic GHG emission have increased since 2010 across all major sectors globally, with an increasing share of emissions from urban areas;
• the unit costs of several low-emission technologies have fallen continuously since 2010;
• without a strengthening of policies, GHG emissions are projected to rise beyond 2025, leading to a median global warming of 3.2°C by 2100.
• there is a strong link between sustainable development, vulnerability, and climate risks;
• in all countries, mitigation efforts embedded within the wider development context can increase the pace, depth and breadth of emissions reductions; and
• international cooperation is a critical enabler for achieving ambitious mitigation goals.

WGIII’s work focuses largely on technological solutions. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) features more prominently in the latest WGIII report than ever before. The SPM asserts that substantial amounts of CDR are necessary to stay below 2°C, although during the meeting suggested that the proposed scenarios may not be realistic in their projections of CDRs’ potential scope and scale.

During the opening and closing plenaries, the delegation of Ukraine reminded the Panel of the brutal consequences of the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. The current energy crisis fueled by Russia’s war on Ukraine has prompted renewed interest in energy security and demand-side options to reduce consumption.

WGIII was the last IPCC working group to publish its report as part of the Panel’s sixth assessment cycle (AR6). Next, the IPCC will publish a synthesis report for this cycle, a stand-alone publication that summarizes the most relevant findings of each working group. The synthesis report is currently under review and is expected to be approved in September 2022 ahead of the Sharm El-Shaikh Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 27). [Publication: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, the Working Group III contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report] [ENB coverage of IPCC-56 and WGIII-14]