The 55th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-55) and the 12th session of Working Group II (WGII-12) were held from February 14 to 25, 2022, supported by Germany. The main agenda of WGII-12 was to approve the Summary for Policymakers, which is the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Climate Change Impact Assessment Report, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It also reviews vulnerabilities and the capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt to climate change.
During the session, representative of the Ukrainian delegation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Svetlana Krakovska addressed the participants of the 55th session of the IPCC.
“Dear Chair, distinguished delegates, all participants of the 55th Session of IPCC
Three days ago, we all woke up in a new world. On behalf of our delegation, I have informed the plenary and co-chairs of Working group II that we will continue to work if we have an internet connection and no missiles over our heads. Very soon most of our delegates were forced to leave their homes to hide in shelters or move to other safer places without internet. And it became clear to me that I cannot think about the wording of SPM when my family is not safe. We quit and should trust other delegations to finish the approval process.
I will say nothing about what happened in my country in these three days and nights. Fortunately, we are an open enough country and you can follow and see all evidence of military crimes in this war against Ukraine, against humanity. At the same time in these three days, other delegations have finished approving the text.
We continued to follow the process of SPM approval on PaperSmart and want to thank technical units for this very valuable tool and for posting all Conference Room Papers in time.
You know, we participated in discussing topics on migrations and intrastate violent conflicts because based on the situation in the last 8 years we expected that very soon Ukraine can become the subject of study of vulnerable to climate change groups due to not intrastate conflicts but war and increasing number of refugees.
I just want to emphasize that this war is not only against Ukraine, but against global safety and fundamental human rights on freedom.
And we are sorry that this solid and extremely important report, the work of 5 years, since pre-scoping, of all – Chair of IPCC, Secretariat, Bureau members, TSU and hundreds of prominent scientists is challenged now to deliver loudly enough their headline statements due to the insidious war against Ukraine. Tomorrow and next week, space in all media will compete between speaking on novel findings and measures to adapt and build a climate-resilient future and news on war against Ukraine. But it was not our choice.
Someone could question us that IPCC is not a political body, and should only assess science related to climate change. Let me assure you that this human-induced climate change and war against Ukraine have direct connections and the same roots. They are fossil fuels and humans sick a dependent on them. While emissions of GHG have changed the energy balance of the planet, the ease of receiving energy from burning coal, oil, and gas has changed the balance of power in the human world. We cannot change the laws of the physical world, but it is our responsibility to change the laws of human civilization towards a climate-resilient future.
We do not surrender in Ukraine, and we are sure that all nations should not surrender to build our climate-resilient world where on one side will be nature, on other human civilization and nothing like climate change or violent conflicts in between to prevent our unity.
We understand that the climate crisis will continue and IPCC should continue its work.
We hope to contribute to the next meeting of Working Group III in three weeks. And wish all peace to your homes.”