GENEVA, Nov 27 – More than six hundred experts appointed to the three Working Groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will gather in Paris from 1 to 5 December 2025 to begin the drafting of the IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).
Hosted by the French Government, through the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forestry, Sea and Fisheries, the Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, this is the First Lead Author Meeting, held jointly by the three Working Groups.
Authors from more than 100 countries will focus their work on the initial drafts of the three Working Group contributions to AR7 and cross-cutting topics. Bringing together authors from all three Working Groups in a single venue aims to enable the IPCC to take an ambitious qualitative leap in assessing key interdisciplinary questions related to climate change.
Virtual Media Briefing (28 November 2025)
On Friday 28 November at 4 pm CET, a virtual media briefing will be held ahead of the official opening of the first Lead Author Meeting, which is taking place on Monday 1 December 2025. This media briefing is organised by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forestry, Sea and Fisheries, in conjunction with the IPCC.
Speakers include:
• Gabriel Normand, diplomatic advisor to Monique Barbut
• Robert Vautard, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group I
Registration is essential. Please register here by midday (12 pm) CET, 28 November 2025.
Further information can be found here.
Opening session (1 December 2025)
The ceremonial opening of the First Lead Author Meeting will take place on Monday, 1 December 2025, at 9.00 am at the H4 Hotel Wyndham Paris Pleyel (49 Boulevard Anatole France, 93200 Saint-Denis).
IPCC authors will be addressed by the Minister of Ecological Transition Monique Barbut, the Mayor of Saint-Denis Mathieu Hanotin, the Chair of the IPCC Jim Skea and the Secretary of the IPCC Abdalah Mokssit.
Except for the opening session, the IPCC meeting is closed to the media.
Details for registration will be available shortly.
Panel discussion: “Ten Years After the Paris Agreement: Where Are We Headed? Unique Insights from the IPCC Leadership (3 Dec 2025)
SciencesPo in Paris will host a panel discussion entitled “Ten Years After the Paris Agreement: Where Are We Headed? Unique Insights from the IPCC Leadership” on 3 December 2025, starting at 19:15 in Émile Boutmy Amphitheatre (27 rue Saint-Guillaume, 75007, Paris).
Laurent Fabius, President of COP21 and Chair of the Circle of COP Presidents will deliver opening remarks and moderate the event featuring Jim Skea, IPCC Chair; Robert Vautard, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group I; Bart van den Hurk, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II; and Joy Jacqueline Pereira, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III.
Media requests for interviews with IPCC Chair Jim Skea should be addressed to IPCC Head of Communications, Andrej Mahecic (amahecic@wmo.int).
For scheduling interviews with IPCC Co-Chairs and Bureau Members, please contact Woo Qiyun, Senior Communications Manager of the IPCC Working Group II (media@ipccwg2.org).
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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, assessing the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II, assessing impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III, assessing 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 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).
At the Panel’s most recent Plenary Session in Lima, Peru, in October 2025, member governments agreed on the scientific content of the 2027 Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage. There, the Panel also agreed on the 2026 workplan for the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report
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.
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.
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch