8. Jan Minx on the IPCC's latest report on mitigation

Challenging Climate

We speak with Jan Minx, Head of Applied Sustainability Science at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, and a visiting Professor of Climate Change and Public Policy at The Priestley Centre at the University of Leeds. Jan has published widely on climate and sustainability issues and has a keen interest in evidence synthesis which he developed through his work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Jan was a coordinating lead author on the latest IPCC assessment report on mitigation and in this episode, he shares his take-aways from the report. We discuss the roles of individual choice, technological development, and carbon dioxide removal in meeting our climate goals. Jan also explains how thinking systematically about evidence synthesis can lead to better reviews of the literature and better research overall.
Links:

• Jan’s Profile
• IPCC Working Group 3 report on mitigation
• The chapter that Jan was a coordinating lead author on: Chapter 2 - emissions trends and drivers
• The chapter that addresses demand-side options: Chapter 5 - Demand, services and social aspects
• Figure SPM6 from Summary for Policymakers that shows demand-side mitigation options
• Carbon Brief article that maps CO2 imports and exports
• The 2015 systematic review study which provides an overview of impacts attribution, covered in the IPCC’s 5th report
• The machine learning effort to provide a more comprehensive overview of impacts attribution that Jan was involved in
• The paper by Gunnar Luderer on the feasibility frontier of climate ambition in economic models of climate change in integrated assessment models

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Chapters

1. 8. Jan Minx on the IPCC's latest report on mitigation (00:00:00)

2. Introduction and background (00:02:33)

3. Key take-aways from the IPCC report on mitigation (00:07:17)

4. What the IPCC report says about carbon dioxide removal (00:14:28)

5. What are the low-hanging fruit for climate action? (00:18:09)

6. The staggering scale of carbon dioxide removal in emissions scenarios (00:22:35)

7. Temperature overshoot (00:30:49)

8. Doing evidence synthesis well (00:35:29)

9. Carbon footprints (00:49:39)

10. Is a high carbon footprint sinful? (00:51:14)

11. Feasibility of ambitious emissions cut scenarios (00:54:06)

12. Social attitudes and personal consumption choices (01:00:36)

13. Wrap-up (01:02:56)