Media reaction: IPCC’s new climate science report and what it means for the world

Carbon Brief Staff

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report has prompted a wave of international press reaction to what one publication dubbed the scientific body’s “starkest warning yet”.

Many newspapers have picked up on the “unequivocal” connection made by the IPCC between humans and climate change, as well as the likelihood that the 1.5C target of the Paris Agreement will be breached in the coming years.

The report arrived after a period of extreme weather, including record-breaking heatwaves and deadly floods, which have made headlines around the world.

Much of the media reaction has referenced these events and urged national governments to take bold action ahead of the COP26 climate summit later this year.

Indeed, as wildfires continued to blaze in many regions, numerous newspapers chose harrowing images of burning buildings and trees in Greece to accompany their coverage.

While the media consensus on the IPCC’s findings was virtually unanimous, a small number of right-wing publications included more dismissive takes. The Wall Street Journal, for example, said in an editorial that the report gave “no good reason to sacrifice your life, or even your standard of living, to the climate gods”.

In the grid below, Carbon Brief has collected key reactions from the editorial and comment pages of newspapers from the UK, US and around the world.

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The significance of the sixth assessment report (AR6) was acknowledged by many publications with the decision to place it on their frontpages. Below there is also a gallery of some of these pages.

Carbon Brief also has an in-depth Q&A on the report, an article explaining what it says about the links between climate change and extreme weather, and another explaining what it says about when the world will pass 1.5C and 2C of warming.

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