Unfortunately, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report makes it completely clear that this will not be considered an unusual year when it comes to floods, fires, drought and all the other natural catastrophes. It is the new normal. Perhaps 2021 will go down in history as one of the better years.

The IPCC releases its "State of the Climate" every seventh year. In 2013, the so-called fifth assessment report painted a dark picture of our future if we were to continue down the same track. It basically said, "Pay now, or pay with interest in the future." And while the interest rates for lending money are at an all-time low, the interest rate from Mother Earth is at an all-time high and headed higher.

Here are a few "Possible Climate Futures" as suggested in the report’s Summary for Policymakers:

  1. Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius and 2 degrees C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.
  2. Many changes in the climate system become larger in direct relation to increasing global warming. They include increases in the frequency and intensity of hot extremes, marine heatwaves and heavy precipitation, agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions; higher proportions of intense tropical cyclones; as well as reductions in Arctic sea ice, snow cover and permafrost.
  3. Continued global warming is projected to further intensify the global water cycle, including its variability, global monsoon precipitation and the severity of wet and dry events.
  4. Under scenarios with increasing CO2 emissions, the ocean and land carbon sinks are projected to be less effective at slowing the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere.
  5. Many changes due to past and future greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible for centuries to millennia, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets and global sea level.

Read the full article about what the IPCC report means for corporate boards by Helle Bank Jorgen at GreenBiz.