Words from...Magali Reghezza, member of the High Council on Climate, geography associate professor of Geography

Unequivocal, relentless, terrifying, chilling. The list of adjectives used to describe each IPCC report seems immutable and, frankly, quite hopeless when we look at the follow-ups given to them. The latest report, dealing with global warming impacts and adaptation, seems to be no exception.

Yet, the three parts of the 6th IPCC report (the third one will be released on April 4), are a great opportunity to – finally – put the debate on the fairest possible adaptation trajectories and the necessary means to implement, on the democratic agenda. At the moment, all we see in this debate are  binary confrontations over technical options (nuclear vs. renewable energy, bikes vs. SUVs), which reduce the topic of adaptation to the the topic of energy transition, which is itself reduced to the topic of electricity production. But what about the structural factors that constrain individual action and underpin climate vulnerability? What about systemic transformations, which concern all productive sectors, territories and social and economic actors? What about the diversity of adaptation options, beyond the technological pseudo-panacea? What about the fair distribution of efforts and support for the most vulnerable?

The message of the IPCC, but also of the High Council on Climate, is clear. All policies and all economic, fiscal and social decisions, all levels of governance and all stakeholders must take the changing climate into account. Indeed, Climate change is a global and systemic risk that threatens our social organisations and our democracies. It is therefore a highly political issue which requires arbitrations, compromises, and to decide on a fair distribution of costs and potential benefits.

If, as the poet says, the path is made by walking, we first need to want to move forward. The IPCC offers us a compass. Science tells us that we still have the possibility to choose a desirable future, but that the longer we wait to act, the narrower the options become. We cannot say it enough: every tenth of a degree counts.

Magali