Elizabeth Carabine of Overseas Development Institute and Mairi Dupar of CDKN introduce the latest in the series of guides to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, which looks at the findings for Small Island Developing States.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has produced the most comprehensive assessment of climate change ever. The Fifth Assessment Report, which the IPCC is releasing in four parts between September 2013 and November 2014, is the work of 830 expert authors, from 85 countries. Its first three volumes already stretch to 5,000+ pages.

Now CDKN and the Overseas Development Institute have released a succinct guide to the assessment for decision-makers in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report: What's in it for Small Island Developing States?  distils the richest material on climate impacts and trends in small islands, and SIDS’ experiences in adaptation and mitigation from the thousands of pages of the Fifth Assessment Report and complemented with similar, peer reviewed case studies from such countries. The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report: What’s in it for Small Island Developing States? aims to make the IPCC’s important material more accessible and usable and responds to wide demand for this type of  information.

The guide is part of a suite of materials to promote the key findings of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, which include companion volumes for Africa and South Asia. Please visit www.cdkn.org/ar5-toolkit for the publications and a range of communications resources, including free-to-use images and infographics.

The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report: What's in it for Small Island Developing States? highlights the following IPCC findings as being of particular relevance to SIDS:

• The climate is already changing and SIDS are already feeling the impacts.
• Further climate change is inevitable in the coming decades
• Climate change is affecting SIDS’ growth and development.
• Climate change poses an existential threat to some SIDS.
• Adaptation can reduce the impacts of climate change, but there are limits and risks involved.
• The economic cost of adaptation to climate change is high in SIDS relative to the size of their economies.
• SIDS stand to benefit from further integration of climate adaptation, mitigation and development approaches.
• Transformation to a low-carbon economy implies new patterns of investment International cooperation is vital to avert dangerous climate change and SIDS governments can promote ambitious global action.

Download the full report The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report: What's in it for Small Island Developing States? and leave your comment below.