A climate change synthesis report released earlier this month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals that the human involvement in developing our fossil-fueled economy has irreversibly changed the global climate.

NBC News states that the report is a synthesis of three reports released in the past 13 months, and it is the fifth report released since the IPCC was formed in 1988. It highlights three important findings in particular for water, according to Circle of Blue.

The first find warns that the changes in precipitation for different parts of the world will not be uniformly distributed in a warming world. “The high latitudes and the equatorial Pacific are likely to experience an increase in annual mean precipitation by the end of this century under the RCP8.5 scenario,” the report stated. “In many mid-latitude and subtropical dry regions, mean precipitation will likely decrease, while in many mid-latitude wet regions, mean precipitation will likely increase under the RCP8.5 scenario.”

Circle of Blue reports that the RCP8.5 scenario is a situation in which dry areas will continue to get drier and wet areas will continue to get wetter if the planet keeps failing to slow down the rate of emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gas.

The second find builds on top of the first, claiming that areas of increased precipitation will also see even more increases. “Extreme precipitation events over most mid-latitude land masses and over wet tropical regions will very likely become more intense and more frequent as global mean surface temperature increases,” the report cautioned.

Lastly, the IPCC addresses the chance of lower-quality water production from increased weather extremes, such as faster patterns of rainfall in certain areas. “The interaction of increased temperature; increased sediment, nutrient, and pollutant loadings from heavy rainfall; increased concentrations of pollutants during droughts; and disruption of treatment facilities during floods will reduce raw water quality and pose risks to drinking water quality.”

According to The Guardian, the report had contributions from thousands of scientists and was agreed after discussions by the world’s governments. It is the first IPCC report to combine all phases of combatting climate change since 2007.