Media registration for Working Group II contribution to Sixth Assessment Report

Deadline extended to midnight CET on 22 February 2022

This media advisory was revised on 16 and 18 February 2022 in order to reflect the updated time of the IPCC Working Group II virtual press conference, related IPCC embargo time and the new registration deadline .

GENEVA, Jan 17 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will consider the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report at a session to be held virtually from 14 to 25 February.  The Working Group II report is assessing climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

The meeting in February is both the 55th Session of the IPCC and the 12th Session of the Working Group II.

This means that the 12th Session of Working Group II will consider the Summary for Policymakers of the report for approval line-by-line. This is done by government representatives in dialogue with report authors. This session concludes with the acceptance of the underlying scientific-technical assessment. Then the 55th Session of the IPCC will accept the work of the Working Group II, thus formally accepting the entire report.

Release of the Working Group II Summary for Policymakers – Press conference

Following the closure of the 55th IPCC Session and subject to Panel’s approval of the Summary for Policymakers, the release of the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report entitled Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability and a virtual press conference to present the Summary for Policymakers is scheduled for:

noon (12:00) CET (Berlin) on Monday, 28 February 2022 – 06:00 EDT (New York), 11:00 GMT (London), 14:00 EAT (Nairobi), 18:00 ICT (Bangkok)

The press conference will be streamed live and further details about scheduled speakers and how to access the live stream will be sent closer to the time. Registered media will also receive details on how to submit questions closer to the time (more details on registration in “How to register” section of this advisory.

The IPCC Chair, Working Group II Co-Chairs and report authors will be available for interviews after the press conference. Details on how media can request interviews will be sent in the coming weeks.

Opening Ceremony of the 55th IPCC Session

The 55th Session of the IPCC will open at 10:00 a.m. (CET) on Monday 14 February 2022. The opening ceremony will be streamed live. Since this is a virtual meeting, registration for the opening session is not necessary. Details of how to follow the livestream will be sent nearer the time.

The opening ceremony, running for an hour, will include addresses by the IPCC Chair, senior officials from the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and others.

The opening ceremony is open to media. Otherwise the IPCC meeting is closed to the public and media.

Embargoed materials

The Summary for Policymakers of Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, the press release and other materials will be made available to registered media under embargo shortly after approval of the Summary for Policymakers.

The exact time when the embargoed material will be made available will depend on the duration of the plenary approving the Summary for Policymakers and acceptance of the underlying report. Registered media will receive an email alert when the embargoed materials have been posted.

Please note that registering for the press conference will not automatically provide you with access to embargoed materials. Media representatives wishing to access the embargoed materials must select the option for “embargo” in the online accreditation form, regardless of whether they are registering to attend the press conference or not. 

The embargo will run until the start of the press conference. Registering for access will require media representatives to adhere to the terms of the embargo. Failure to adhere to the conditions, e.g. publishing stories based on the embargoed materials before the start of the press conference, will result in IPCC withdrawing access to future embargoed materials and embargo arrangements.

How to register

The IPCC operates its own press accreditation system. Please check our accreditation and registration FAQs: https://apps.ipcc.ch/eventmanager/press/docs/ipcc_media_accreditation_FAQs.pdf.  

It is not necessary to register simply to follow the live stream of the press conference. Registration is only required to receive details of how to submit questions during the press conference and/or to access embargoed materials.

To register please click “Register” here and fill in the form that comes up.

Please ensure that you have scanned copies of your credentials ready when you start filling in the form, as the system will not allow you to proceed without uploading these. You can upload up to two files in JPG, PNG and PDF formats. Altogether these two files should not exceed 4MB in total.

The required credentials are:

  • A letter of assignment requesting accreditation on official letterhead of a media organization, signed by the publisher, editor-in-chief, or assignment editor. It should include the name and duration of assignment of the journalist; and
  • A valid press card; or a valid media accreditation badge for the United Nations in New York, Geneva, Vienna or Nairobi. If you do not have a press card, please submit 3 recent samples (i.e. from the last six months) of your work in a relevant area and a scanned copy of a valid photo ID or passport.

Before filling in the form, please carefully read the guidelines below, which need to be followed by all users, including media representatives who have used the system before. 

On the IPCC media portal, follow the following steps:

  • Click Register
  • On the registration form, select the event;
  • Select one or more of the following options: opening ceremony, press conference; embargoed materials. You can choose one, two or all three options (NB for this virtual meeting it is not necessary to register for the opening session);
  • Fill in the rest of the form;
  • Upload your credentials;
  • Click “Submit”;
  • Read information on the pop-up window and click “I agree” to submit the form.

The IPCC media team will review your credentials. Once you are registered to attend the press conference you will receive an email confirming your registration. If you request access to the embargoed materials, the email you receive will have credentials to use to log into the system. To access the system you will need to agree to respect the terms of the embargo.

Please note that due to the high number of requests, approval of registration might take several days. 

If you have used the system before, the email that you receive will indicate that you should use “Your global IPCC password”, which refers to your previous password. In case you have lost it, please click “Forgot password” on the IPCC media registration page.

The updated deadline for registration is midnight CET on 22 February 2022. We encourage you to register as soon as possible and not leave it to the last minute as the IPCC has limited capacity to deal with late or last-minute requests. The IPCC cannot guarantee that it will be able to review requests submitted after the deadline.

Each member of a media team should register individually using their unique email address.

Embargoed materials are primarily for the use by media covering the release of the report. Access may be extended to relevant bodies preparing communications activities and materials to coincide with the release of the report. Like media representatives, you will be required when registering and when accessing materials to agree to respect the terms of the embargo. When registering, your credentials will be an ID from your institution confirming your position, or a scanned copy of your business card and a general ID such as a passport or national identity card.

Other arrangements

The IPCC will advise nearer the time on how to request interviews with IPCC experts and scientists. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, interviews will be held remotely.  IPCC will also share details on how to access the live stream of the press conference scheduled for 28 February. Media representatives who have registered for the press conference will also receive details on to submit questions during the press conference. We will also issue a further media advisory on arrangements for broadcasters.

ENDS

For more information contact:

IPCC Press Office, Email: media@ipcc.ch 
Andrej Mahecic, + 41 22 730 8516, Werani Zabula, + 41 22 730 8120, Nina Peeva, + 41 22 730 8142 and Melissa Walsh +41 22 730 8532.

Notes for Editors

 About the IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.

Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.

The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II, dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III, dealing with the mitigation of climate change. It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals.

IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency.

About the Sixth Assessment Cycle

Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014 and provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement. 

At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At its 42nd Session in October 2015 it elected a new Bureau that would oversee the work on this report and Special Reports to be produced in the assessment cycle. At its 43rd Session in April 2016, it decided to produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report and AR6. 

The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021.

More information about the Working Group II report, including its agreed outline, can be found here.

The Working Group III contribution is scheduled to be finalized in April 2022.

The concluding Synthesis Report is due later in 2022.

The IPCC also publishes special reports on more specific issues between assessment reports.

Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty was launched in October 2018.

Climate Change and Land, an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems was launched in August 2019, and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate was released in September 2019.

In May 2019 the IPCC released the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals. 

For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.

The website includes outreach materials including videos about the IPCC and video recordings from outreach events conducted as webinars or live-streamed events.

Most videos published by the IPCC can be found on our YouTube and Vimeo channels.  
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