Synthesis Report AR6

The AR6 Synthesis Report (SYR) is the final installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report cycle. It was approved during the IPCC's 58th Session in Interlaken, Switzerland, and released on 20 March 2023. The report distills and integrates the findings of the three Working Group contributions to AR6—WGI on the physical science basis (2021), WGII on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability (2022), and WGIII on mitigation of climate change (2022)—along with the three AR6 Special Reports: the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR1.5, 2018), the Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL, 2019), and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC, 2019).

The SYR consists of a Summary for Policymakers (SPM) and a Longer Report, organised around three sections: Current Status and Trends, Future Climate Change, Risks, and Long-Term Responses, and Responses in the Near Term. Like all IPCC SPMs, it is approved line-by-line by government delegations, giving it unusual political weight.

Key headline findings include:

• Human activities have unequivocally caused approximately 1.1°C of warming above 1850–1900 levels.
• Global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise, with unequal contributions across regions and income groups.
• Limiting warming to 1.5°C requires deep, rapid, and sustained reductions, with global GHG emissions peaking before 2025 in modelled pathways.
• There is a rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future; choices made this decade have impacts now and for thousands of years.

The SYR is heavily cited at UNFCCC negotiations, including at COP28 in Dubai (2023), where it informed the first Global Stocktake outcome. It serves as a primary reference for delegates, negotiators, and researchers working on climate policy.