Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis

Published on August 7, 2021, this report collates and discusses physical science data on climate systems and human influence. The report was released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its sixth cycle of assessment – the last of which happened in 2013-14. The IPCC was set up by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988.The IPCC has been conducting assessment cycles since 1990 to present the latest scientific knowledge on climate change. The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) includes the contributions of three Working Groups – this report being the work of Working Group I. As many as 234 scientists from across the world contributed to the report in reviewing and writing about scientific literature that had been accepted for publication as on January 31, 2021.This 3,949-page report is divided into 12 chapters: Framing, context, methods (Chapter 1); Changing state of the climate system (Chapter 2); Human influence on the climate system (Chapter 3); Future global climate: scenario-based projections and near-term information (Chapter 4); Global carbon and other biogeochemical cycles and feedbacks (Chapter 5); Short-lived climate forcers (Chapter 6); The Earth's energy budget, climate feedbacks, and climate sensitivity (Chapter 7); Water cycle changes (Chapter 8); Ocean, cryosphere, and sea level change (Chapter 9); Linking global to regional climate change (Chapter 10); Weather and climate extreme events in a changing climate (Chapter 11); Climate change information for regional impact and for risk assessment (Chapter 12). The report appendices, references and a section on figures.