The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate in 2019 (www.ipcc.ch/srocc). The Special Report was a response to proposals from governments and observer organisations to the IPCC. For its preparation, more than 100 scientists from more than 30 countries assessed “the latest scientific knowledge about the physical science basis and impacts of climate change on ocean, coastal, polar and mountain ecosystems, and the human communities that depend on them.” Communities’ vulnerabilities, adaptation capacities and societies’ options for achieving climate-resilient development pathways were also assessed. The Special Report’s findings are of great importance to Africa and the world. This publication offers a guide to the IPCC’s Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere prepared for decision-makers in Africa by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and SouthSouthNorth (SSN). This is not an official IPCC publication. The IPCC’s own Summary for Policy Makers focuses principally on global issues and trends. This report distils the richest material available on Africa from the more than 700 pages of the Special Report. In a few places, we have included supplementary material from recently published research that extends and explains the points made in the IPCC’s Special Report. We have clearly labelled this supplementary material ‘Beyond the IPCC’. This guide responds to widespread demand among CDKN’s African partner networks for region-specific information.
