IPCC, International, National/subnational Agreements

• What is the IPCC?

  • The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change
  • It prepares comprehensive assessment reports about climate change
  • It was created to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change and to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies
• Geopolitics associated with the human response to climate change 


  • International directives = Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement > global scale > limited effectiveness
  • National/ regional policies = Denmark > national scale > effective AND Carbon trading/ carbon credits eg. EU ETS > regional sale > effective
  • Sub-national policies = California > local scale > effective
• RCP 8.5

  The IPCC predicts the worse case scenario where GHG emissions rise throughout the 21st century - up to 4.5 degrees by 2100