Concluding instalment of the Fifth Assessment Report: Climate change threatens irreversible and dangerous impacts, but options exist to limit its effects

Limiting the effects of climate change raise issues of equity, justice, and fairness and is necessary to achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication. "Many of those most vulnerable to climate change have contributed and contribute little to greenhouse gas emissions," said R. K. Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the launch of the Synthesis Report on 2nd November. He added that "addressing climate change will not be possible if individual agents advance their own interests independently; it can only be achieved through cooperative responses, including international cooperation."

"Adaptation can play a key role in decreasing these risks," said Vicente Barros, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II. "Adaptation is so important because it can be integrated with the pursuit of development, and can help prepare for the risks to which we are already committed by past emissions and existing infrastructure."