GENEVA, June 19 — The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) announce access to the full library of AGU Publications for IPCC authors working on the Panel’s Seventh Assessment Report, or AR7.
“This landmark decision is an invaluable scientific boost for the IPCC’s ongoing work,” said IPCC Chair Jim Skea. “It will enable our authors from developing countries and those facing access barriers to enhance their scientific contributions to the upcoming reports of IPCC’s three Working Groups assessing the latest science related to climate change. We encourage other major scientific publishers to consider following suit at this critical time for climate science.”
As a non-profit scholarly publisher, AGU publishes 24 peer-reviewed high-impact journals and four active book series, including monographs, advanced-level textbooks, and technical manuals across the entire spectrum of Earth and space sciences. It also runs the Earth and Space Science Open Archive.
AGU journals publish research articles, letters, commentaries and other types of scholarly content within the fields of Earth and space sciences. Covering topics ranging from atmospheric science and oceanography to geophysics, planetary science, and climate change, AGU journals are an essential mode of information sharing and enterprise building for the global scientific community.
“IPCC Reports provide authoritative scientific consensus on climate change to a broad spectrum of key players, from government and community leaders to industries and advocacy organizations,” said AGU President Brandon Jones. “Opening AGU publications’ portfolio to the authors of the Seventh Assessment Report provides greater equitable access to critical research of the scientific community, which can be assessed, considered, and weighed when informing the final report.”
Following the Panel’s agreement in February on the outlines of the three Working Group contributions during its 62nd Session held in Hangzhou, China, the IPCC has now completed the call for nominations of experts to act as Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors, or Review Editors for the three key Working Group contributions to IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report.
Hundreds of experts in different scientific domains worldwide will be selected to volunteer their time and expertise to produce the new set of IPCC Reports. Author teams will reflect a range of scientific, technical, and socio-economic knowledge. Coordinating Lead Authors and Lead Authors will be responsible for drafting the different chapters of the Working Group contributions to the AR7 and, with the help of the Review Editors, revising those based on comments submitted during the two rounds of reviews by experts and governments.
IPCC author teams include experts from different regions to ensure geographic balance. The IPCC also seeks a balance in gender, as well as a balance between those authors with experience in working on IPCC Reports and those new to the process, including younger scientists.
The outlines of the three Working Group contributions to the AR7 were developed after a comprehensive scientific scoping meeting in December 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, before the Panel considered them and agreed upon them at the end of February.
For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int;
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120
AGU contact: Josh Weinberg, news@agu.org
Notes for Editors
What is 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, scientists and 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.
What is AGU
The American Geophysical Union (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million scientists, advocates, and professionals in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.
About the Seventh Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 5 to 7 years. The IPCC is currently in its seventh assessment cycle, 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.
At its first Plenary Session in the seventh assessment cycle – the 60th Plenary Session in Istanbul, Türkiye, in January 2024 – the Panel agreed to produce in this cycle the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (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. The Synthesis Report of the Seventh Assessment Report will be produced after the completion of the Working Group reports and released by late 2029.
During its 62nd Plenary Session held in Hangzhou, China, in February 2025, the Panel has agreed on the outlines of the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).
The Panel decided already during the previous cycle to produce a Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and a Methodology Report on Short-lived Climate Forcers during AR7.. Scientists have also been asked to deliver a Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage.
At the IPCC’s 61st Plenary Session held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 27 July to 2 August 2024, the Panel agreed upon the outlines for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities scheduled for approval and publication in March 2027 and for the 2027 IPCC Methodology Report on Inventories for Short-lived Climate Forcers scheduled for publication in the second half 2027.
In addition, 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 at COP28 in Dubai.
The Sixth Assessment Report comprises three Working Group contributions and a Synthesis Report. The Working Group I contribution Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021. The Working Group II contribution, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was released on 28 February 2022. The Working Group III contribution, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, was released on 4 April 2022 and the Synthesis Report on 20 March 2023. The Synthesis Report to the Sixth Assessment Report, distils and integrates the findings of the three Working Group assessments as well as the three Special Reports released in 2018 and 2019.
The special reports were on Global Warming of 1.5°C (October 2018.), Climate Change and Land (August 2019) and, the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (September 2019).
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 channel.