Bangkok, March 27 – The 64th Plenary Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) closed in Bangkok this evening. The session discussed the review of the Principles and Procedures that govern IPCC’s work. These should be reviewed every five years and are critical to ensuring the IPCC’s capacity to produce comprehensive, neutral, objective, transparent, inclusive, and robust assessments of climate-related science.
The Panel decided to consider the review of the IPCC Principles and Procedures at future sessions.
During the Plenary, the member governments also decided to consider the timeline of the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).
While the Panel made no formal decision, the member governments clearly indicated that they want the timeline agreed at its next session.
“In IPCC, we use our best endeavours to achieve consensus. Sometimes, as we pursue our best endeavours, we strive in slightly different directions. But I think the spirit of compromise and flexibility in IPCC was shown in the end,” said IPCC Chair Jim Skea, addressing the delegates in closing the session.
During the four-day session, the Panel also considered the financial situation and fundraising for the IPCC Trust Fund for this cycle and beyond to ensure its long-term sustainability. Supported entirely by voluntary contributions from member governments, the IPCC Trust Fund is the key mechanism enabling participation by developing-country governments and scientists in the IPCC’s work.
The Panel also agreed on the work programme of the Task Group for Data Support for Climate Change Assessments.
The 64th Plenary Session of the IPCC was also the last one for the IPCC Secretary Abdalah Mokssit, who led the IPCC Secretariat for the past decade, and will retire in the next few months. On this occasion, the delegates, Bureau members, observer organizations, and staff expressed appreciation for the outgoing Secretary’s strong commitment and rich contributions.
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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, 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 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