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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gathered in Hangzhou, China, to draft the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) and a methodology report on carbon dioxide removal technologies.
This gathering is particularly critical following last year’s record warm temperatures, which were approximately 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels, and amid the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under President Trump.
IPCC AR7 is crucial as it will provide the most up-to-date scientific consensus on climate change, serving as a key source of information for governments globally to develop climate policies and inform international climate negotiations, offering insights into the latest research on the physical science basis of climate change, its impacts, adaptation strategies, and mitigation options, all while considering recent advancements in climate science and modelling.
IPCC Chair Jim Skea said it was a “pivotal session” for the delivery of the next report on global climate science.
The IPCC typically releases major assessment reports every five to seven years, with the next or seventh round, which formally began in July 2023 with the elections of the new IPCC and Task Force Bureaus at the IPCC’s Plenary Session in Nairobi, set to include three key reports: one on climate science, one on climate impacts, and another on solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, scheduled for release in late 2029.
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“Six months ago, the panel gave the green light to the outlines of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, and the Methodology Report on Short-Lived Climate Forcers, opening up the process for nominating and selecting authors. With selected authors on board, the first Lead Author Meetings for both reports will take place next month,” Skea said in its opening remarks on Monday.
The Bureau and selected scientists who met at the Scoping Meeting for the Seventh Assessment Report in Kuala Lumpur in December have done their utmost to bring scientifically strong and well-structured drafts to this plenary, Skea said.
During the week-long session, representatives from 195 member countries will also consider the respective timelines and budgets for these four reports. No decision about the Synthesis Report is expected at this point.
The current or the 62nd plenary session will enable scientists to begin work on these reports, although it is reported that US officials and federal scientists have been withdrawn from the discussions by the Trump administration.
Some scientists have called for the AR7 reports to be completed in time to inform the next review of climate policies as mandated by the Paris Agreement, known as the Global Stocktake and scheduled for 2028. But deep divisions have twice prevented an agreement on the timeline being reached so far.
European and Latin American states, small island nations and least developed countries have pushed for the reports to be delivered by mid-2028, in time for the next UN Global Stocktake. However, at the last gathering in August 2024, a dozen developing nations led by Saudi Arabia, Russia, India and China opposed an accelerated timeline, citing concerns over the inclusivity of a shortened assessment process.
“As we see the impacts of the climate crisis worsening around the world, we watch fires, floods, strengthening storms, and drought and starvation destroy lives and communities,” the group of countries said in a joint statement.
“We owe it to everyone suffering the impacts of the climate crisis now, and to future generations, to make decisions about our planet’s future on the basis of the best evidence and knowledge available to us.”
The UN body for assessing the science related to climate change will also consider the draft outline of the methodology report on carbon dioxide removal technologies, and carbon capture utilisation and storage, a report scheduled for release in 2027.
At its first Plenary Session in the seventh assessment cycle, the 60th Plenary Session in Istanbul, Turkey, in January 2024, the panel agreed to produce in this cycle the three Working Group contributions to AR7, namely the Working Group I report on the Physical Science Basis, the Working Group II report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability and the Working Group III report on Mitigation of Climate Change.
Furthermore, a revision of the 1994 IPCC technical guidelines on impacts and adaptation as well as adaptation indicators, metrics and guidelines, will be developed in conjunction with the Working Group II report and published as a separate product.
IPCC’s latest report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was completed in March 2023 with the release of its Synthesis Report, which provided direct scientific input to the First Global Stocktake process under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at COP28 in Dubai.
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