64th Session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA64), 9 June 2026, Bonn, Germany.

Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates and colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, thank you for the opportunity to address the 18th Research Dialogue.

Before focusing on the themes of the Dialogue, allow me to provide a brief update on the progress of the IPCC´s seventh assessment cycle.

Nearly three years into the cycle, the scientific content of all our planned reports has been agreed, and authors have been selected. We already have three reports scheduled for release next year.

In about nine months, the IPCC will hold an approval plenary for the 2027 Special Report on Climate Change and Cities. As we meet here, the Government and Expert Review of the Second Order Draft of the Special Report and the first draft of its Summary for Policymakers is under way and will close in the first week of July.

We also have approval sessions for two methodology reports scheduled for the second half of next year. Methodology reports provide guidance to governments on reporting emissions and removals of greenhouse gases.

The Expert Review of the First Order Draft of the Methodology Report on Short-Lived Climate Forcers concluded in February. The report’s third Lead Author Meeting took place in April, and the Government and Expert Review of the Second Order Draft will begin in September.

The authors of the 2027 Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage, held their first Lead Author Meeting in mid-April and will meet again in August.

Meanwhile, all three Working Groups are progressing their First Order Drafts for Expert Review. Working Groups I and II held their second Lead Author meetings in April and May, respectively. Due to the current travel restrictions in the Middle East, Working Group III held a virtual pre-Lead Author Meeting three weeks ago and plans its Second Lead Author meeting in September.

This brings me to the Panel´s pending decision on the timelines for the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report. I have started consultations with the IPCC member governments, Bureau members, and the Secretariat on criteria for assessing timeline options, with a view to reaching consensus at the IPCC’s next Plenary in October.

As a scientist myself and the Chair of the IPCC, I cannot overstate the importance of this decision for the scientific community gathered around IPCC. We have more than a thousand scientists from every continent and region who volunteer their time and expertise to work on IPCC reports. They deserve clarity about the duration of their voluntary commitment to the IPCC, allowing them to plan their professional and private lives accordingly.  

Now let me turn to three aspects of the Seventh Assessment Cycle relevant to this Research Dialogue: scenarios, adaptation and Indigenous knowledge systems.

First, on scenarios. And let me stress from the start that there are no IPCC Scenarios. There are only published scenarios assessed by IPCC. IPCC does not conduct research and decided nearly 20 years ago not to engage in scenario development.

Three years ago, we held a workshop on the Use of Scenarios in the Sixth Assessment Report and Subsequent Assessments. This produced clear recommendations, directed at both scientific communities engaged in scenario development, and IPCC itself. These recommendations are now being acted upon during the seventh cycle.

Importantly, there will be no single IPCC-endorsed “scenarios database” to support the Seventh Assessment. Instead, authors aim to assess multiple “community databases”. Structured community databases, to which modelling teams may submit scenarios, offer the advantage of common formats and comparability across scenarios while enhancing diversity and inclusivity.

A group of authors representing all three Working Groups has just published an open letter encouraging scenario modelling communities to contribute to such databases. A number of these databases already exist.

Integrated Assessment Models and other related models link socio-economic background assumptions, mitigation pathways and emission outcomes. We can expect hundreds, if not thousands, of such scenarios to be available for the current IPCC assessment.

Earth Systems Models, as I expect will be described shortly by Dr. Eleanor O’Rourke, project climate outcomes at some geographical detail based on emissions scenarios, or assumptions about radiative forcing. These models are computationally demanding, and only a small number of scenarios can be run.

In the Sixth Assessment cycle, IPCC Working Group I drew on five sets of model simulations, deriving from the sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, or CMIP 6. The Seventh Cycle will similarly draw on, among other sources, the CMIP 7 Assessment Fast Track, driven by seven representative emission scenarios developed under the Scenario Model Intercomparison Project (ScenarioMIP). My apologies for all the acronyms!

Note that the range of emissions covered by the CMIP 7 Assessment Fast Track will be narrower than in CMIP 6. The upper end of the range is no longer considered plausible, partly due to progress in clean energy. At the lower end, due to a lack of progress in reducing global emissions, many CMIP6 emission trajectories have become inconsistent with recent trends. However, the range of temperature responses may not narrow in the same way because of uncertainties in the physical climate system. We must be very careful to distinguish between emission scenarios and warming scenarios, a distinction not always evident in recent commentaries.

Following the “no single endorsed database” principle, other scenarios may be considered, such as those covered in PolMIP, the Policy-aligned Model Intercomparison Project.

Only Earth System Models can generate output at sufficient detail to drive impact assessments. At the boundary between Working Groups I and III, reduced complexity climate models (or “emulators”) can be used to derive global climate change indicators from the hundreds, or thousands, of published emissions scenarios generated by Integrated Assessment Models.

All of these approaches will be assessed in the Seventh Assessment Report.

Now turning to adaptation. We will be hearing shortly from two of my colleagues from IPCC’s Working Group II, so let me not steal their thunder. It is now almost inevitable that we will soon exceed global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the warming level beyond which risks start to accelerate. The urgent need to enhance resilience and step up adaptation efforts is obvious.

So, what is IPCC planning for the current cycle? The word “adaptation” appears in three chapter titles of the Working Group II report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. This is three more times than in the sixth assessment cycle. This signals clearly a new emphasis on climate action. We have chapters which have not appeared in previous reports on “responses to losses and damages” and finance.

And, we are also updating Technical Guidelines, dating from 1994, on assessing impacts and adaptation. Compared to mitigation, adaptation has lacked the means to measure progress.

The update will emphasise indicators, metrics and methodologies. These should provide useful guidance on planning, including mainstreaming adaptation of a more transformational character into existing policies and practices. The guidelines will address learning, monitoring and evaluation, including adaptation targets, as well as metrics and indicators to monitor and track progress, uptake and performance. 

Finally, let me touch on Indigenous Knowledge Systems. We are running a side event launching the report of an IPCC Workshop on Engaging Diverse Knowledge Systems in the Bonn Room at 12:00 on Thursday, 11 June. This Workshop, as the title suggests, addressed how IPCC could engage with Indigenous knowledge alongside local knowledge holders and practitioners, considering the effective and equitable engagement of Indigenous knowledge holders and building on experience built up in other fora, such as IPBES.

The Workshop generated a set of recommendations, agreed by consensus among a very diverse group of participants. I won’t go into detail, but these cover: the nomination and selection of experts; the discovery and assessment of knowledge; internal mechanisms to promote engagement and participation; capacity building, outreach and partnerships; and, more ambitiously, mandate, structure and membership. I should emphasise that these recommendations belong to workshop participants and have not been endorsed or approved by the Panel itself. But many of the recommendations could be followed up by author teams, Bureau members or Technical Support Units without fundamental changes to IPCC’s modus operandi. If you want to hear more, I invite you to attend Thursday’s side event.

Chair, I will bring my remarks to a close here.

But to conclude, the IPCC Seventh Assessment cycle is now well under way and we look forward to start delivering our reports from early 2027 onwards.

Thank you.

GENEVA, June 5 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will participate in the 64th session of the Subsidiary Bodies (SBs) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as the June Climate Meetings.  The meetings are taking place in Bonn, Germany, from 8 to 18 June 2026.  

The IPCC Chair, Jim Skea, will address the opening of the 18th Research Dialogue on 9 June. In his remarks, the Chair will provide an update on the progress of the seventh assessment cycle and cover some of the topics of this year’s Research Dialogue, including advances in climate models and scenarios, the assessment of adaptation effectiveness, and the integration of Indigenous and local knowledge in the IPCC assessment process. Working Group II Co-Chair Prof. Bart van den Hurk and Working Group II Vice-Chair Cromwel Lukorito will deliver interventions at the plenary session of the Research Dialogue. Their interventions, respectively,  will focus on pathways for accelerating sectoral transformation across national and regional contexts and sustainable development needs; and on understanding major transboundary, cascading and compounding climate risks.

IPCC Vice-Chair Diana Ürge-Vorsatz will take part as a panelist in the Expert Dialogue on gender and age disaggregated data and gender analysis in the context of climate change.  

On the opening day of the conference, 8 June, the Deputy Secretary of the IPCC Ermira Fida will deliver a statement on behalf of the IPCC, during the joint opening plenary session.

On 10 and 11 June 2026, the IPCC will hold two side events; the first will look at the progress on the AR7 and the key cross-cutting topics of Expert Meetings and Workshops, while the second side event will focus on the launch of the report from the IPCC Workshop on Engaging Diverse Knowledge Systems held at the University of Reading, UK, in February this year.

In addition to these, IPCC experts will also be actively participating in other events and activities during the conference.

Further details about the events in this media advisory and other activities involving the IPCC will be available here.

For interview requests with the IPCC experts attending the 64th session of the Subsidiary Bodies in Bonn, please email ipcc-media@wmo.int.

For more information contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516 or Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120

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, 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.  

GENEVA, June 2 – Experts are meeting in Rome this week to discuss the latest science and evidence on the impacts, adaptation, and solution pathways of climate change on agriculture and food systems. Hosted at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the meeting is a co-sponsored undertaking by FAO and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It will be held from 2 to 5 June 2026.

This Expert Meeting will bring together more than 80 leading scientists, researchers, and practitioners with expertise across food systems domains, from crop production to livestock and fisheries production, to land and water dynamics, climate-resilient value chains and agricultural policy.

It will cover emerging and future risks and impacts across different food and agricultural commodity chains, adaptation-mitigation synergies in agrifood systems solutions, and the social and policy pathways for implementing good practices.

The Co-Sponsored Expert Meeting is expected to contribute new information, findings, and resources relevant to agriculture- and food systems-related topics for the IPCC´s Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).

These include agriculture-specific chapters in the Working Group II and Working Group III contributions to the AR7, as well as chapters addressing rural livelihoods, settlements, terrestrial and oceanic biodiversity and natural resource management, losses and damages, finance, adaptation effectiveness, and adaptation-mitigation synergies.

More information on this expert meeting is available here.

For interview requests with the IPCC experts participating in this meeting, please contact Woo Qiyun, Senior Communications Manager, IPCC Working Group II Technical Support Unit, media@ipccwg2.org.

For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int;
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120.

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, 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.  

GENEVA, May 20 – In relation to some of the recent media and social media reporting, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wishes to clarify that, in several instances, the paper on climate scenarios authored by the Scenario Model Intercomparison Project (https://wcrp-cmip.org/mips/scenariomip/), which inputs assumptions to part of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) process, has been incorrectly attributed to the IPCC.

The paper belongs to the broader body of scientific literature produced by the international research community, under the coordination of the World Climate Research Program, not the IPCC. It aims at producing a set of future illustrative scenarios that can be used by climate modellers to simulate the response of the Earth System to common greenhouse gas emissions.

The IPCC does not conduct its own research, run models or make measurements. It does not own the scenarios described in the mentioned paper, nor does it own any of the scenarios assessed in the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). The IPCC’s role is to assess the available scientific, peer-reviewed literature relevant to climate change, currently running at approximately 50,000 papers and studies per year. The mentioned paper is within the scope of the IPCC’s next assessment.

Some of the recent media and social media reporting has focused on the scenario known as SSP5-8.5, previously referred to as RCP8.5. This was one of five illustrative scenarios (the most extreme in emissions until 2100) assessed in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report covering the range of possible future developments of drivers of climate change found in the scientific literature, and is further explained in IPCC AR6 Working Group I FAQ page.

The illustrative scenarios included in AR6 describe potential society and emission evolutions starting in 2015. More recent literature reflecting the last decade of developments, such as CMIP7 scenarios, will be considered in the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).

IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report stated that human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850–1900 in 2011–2020. Continued greenhouse gas emissions will lead to increasing global warming, with the best estimate of reaching 1.5°C in the near term in considered scenarios and modelled pathways.

The IPCC’s last report also warned that every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards. Deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a discernible slowdown in global warming within around two decades and also to discernible changes in atmospheric composition within a few years.

During the current, seventh assessment cycle, IPCC will once again assess new contributions to the scientific literature, including the mentioned paper.

In order to avoid the risk of pre‑empting the outcomes of its assessment process, IPCC does not comment on individual papers or publications.

For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int;
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120.

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, 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.  

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Copenhagen, Denmark, 21 May 2026

Your Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

As Chair of IPCC, I thank our hosts for the invitation to address this session.

You all know what IPCC is and what it does, but let me just emphasise our unique capacity to assess the vast and exponentially growing body of knowledge on climate change, its impacts, and available responses. While every individual scientific paper matters, IPCC can place them in the context of the overall body of evolving knowledge.

And with that, let me cut straight to the topic of this session. At current levels of warming, we can already see the effects of extreme events, including intense heat, wildfires, flooding, heavy rainfall and tropical cyclones. These cause disruption and devastation, highlighting the vulnerability of our globally interconnected societies. Meanwhile, sea level rise is inexorable, posing existential risks to those most exposed.

It is now almost inevitable that we will soon exceed global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the warming level beyond which risks start to accelerate. The urgent need to enhance resilience and step up adaptation efforts is obvious. Our Sixth Assessment Report concluded that adaptation progress has been made across all sectors and regions, but that progress has been unevenly distributed with observed adaptation gaps.

Three degrees of warming, consistent with current mitigation policies, will have disastrous consequences. As we emphasised in the Sixth Assessment Report, every fraction of a degree of warming matters.

In principle, it is possible in the long-term to return warming to 1.5 degrees. But many climate impacts are irreversible. Mid-century warming levels on the pathway towards net zero matter, not just those achieved at the end of the century.

So, what is IPCC is planning for the current cycle? The word “adaptation” appears in three chapter titles of the Working Group II report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. This is actually three times more than in the sixth assessment cycle. This signals clearly a new emphasis on climate action. We have chapters which have not appeared in previous reports on “responses to losses and damages” and finance.

And, we are also updating Technical Guidelines, dating from 1994, on assessing impacts and adaptation.  Compared to mitigation, adaptation has lacked the means to measure progress. Adaptation actions are more difficult to separate from broader patterns of investment in infrastructure and development. The update will emphasise indicators, metrics and methodologies. These should provide useful guidance on planning, including mainstreaming adaptation of a more transformational character into existing policies and practices. The guidelines will address learning, monitoring and evaluation, including adaptation targets, as well as metrics and indicators to monitor and track progress, uptake and performance.  

Already, it is evident to the authors that many bodies have already made progress in developing a variety of guidelines for assessing impacts and adaptation. The challenge for the updated Technical Guidelines may lie in assessing existing approaches, rather than starting from scratch.  

The target audience for the guidelines includes, obviously, negotiators with their interest in the Global Goal on Adaptation and indicators to measure progress. But other important audiences include policymakers and practitioners at the national and sub-national levels who plan infrastructure and implement adaptation measures on the ground.  

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

To finish, a few words on progress with the IPCC Seventh Cycle. All Working Groups have started work and are busy preparing their First Order Drafts for Expert Review. Working Group II on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability is holding its second lead author meeting in the Bahamas as we speak. The combined government and expert review of a Special Report of Special Report on Climate Change and Cities began two weeks ago. That report is scheduled for release next March.  

We know that the Working Group Reports will start to appear in mid-2028, but the full timeline has yet to be decided. We have just opened a consultation on criteria for assessing timeline options with a view to reaching a decision at the IPCC’s next Plenary in October.

Speaking as a scientist, and on behalf of IPCC authors, I have one plea. And that is for certainty. Our 660 authors take time out from their day jobs, conducting research and teaching the next generation, to volunteer their services to IPCC. As the seventh cycle gathers pace, uncertainty is the biggest challenge to their sustained engagement.

I take this opportunity to invite the policymakers at this conference to support IPCC in bringing this debate to a conclusion.

Thank you.

Over 200 authors from the IPCC’s Working Group II gather in the Bahamas to work on the draft of the next scientific report assessing climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities.

NASSAU, May 18 —The authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working on the next Working Group II report which assesses the latest science related to climate impacts, adaptation pathways and vulnerabilities are meeting in Nassau, Bahamas this week to develop the report’s first draft. This is the second time authors are meeting to advance work on the report, also known as the Second Lead Author Meeting. Taking place from 18 to 22 May 2026, this meeting brings together more than 200 authors of the Working Group II from nearly 90 countries. This marks a critical milestone in the development of the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).

“Increasingly, climate impacts are being felt around the world. They are a present reality everywhere. The Bahamas is a living case study of the current climate realities our report must address,” said Prof Winston Chow, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group II

“Being hosted by a small island state is a reminder to us that the science assessment we produce has direct consequences for communities on the frontlines of climate change. We are grateful to the Government of The Bahamas for their support for our work”, he added.  

Working Group II focuses on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability — topics of acute relevance to small island developing states and coastal nations such as the Bahamas. In the AR7, the Working Group II contribution consists of 20 chapters. In addition to its report, the Working Group II authors will also update the 1994 Technical Guidelines for Assessing Climate Change Impact and Adaptations (TGIA).

“As a Bahamian climate change scientist, it is essential for the IPCC to advance understanding and action on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. These are critical issues for The Bahamas and other small islands around the world on the frontlines of climate impacts. This meeting provides an opportunity for authors to witness first-hand the realities on the ground for vulnerable island communities and to encourage Caribbean experts to engage with the IPCC,”  said Dr Adelle Thomas, Vice Chair of the IPCC Working Group II.

The second Lead Author Meeting provides the report’s authors with the opportunity to discuss and refine the initial drafts of their chapters, strengthen cross-chapter integration and advance the scientific assessment aimed at supporting policymakers around the world in shaping action on climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

The drafting process for this report has been underway since the First Lead Author Meeting in Paris, France in December 2025. Selected authors have been developing the report based on the outline agreed by the 195-member government Panel during its 63rd Plenary Session held in Hangzhou, China in February 2025.

Following this Second Lead Author Meeting, the authors will develop the First-Order Draft which will be open for experts around the world to review and comment on.

For interview requests with the IPCC experts participating in this meeting, please contact Woo Qiyun, Senior Communications Manager, IPCC Working Group II Technical Support Unit, media@ipccwg2.org.

For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int; Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120

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, 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 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. 

About Working Group II

The IPCC Working Group II contribution to the Seventh  Assessment Report focuses on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. The current approved outline of the report details 20 chapters, including an update to the Technical Guidelines on impacts and adaptation (TGIA).

For more information and to access the agreed outline of the Working Group II report, visit www.ipcc.ch/working-group/wg2/.

GENEVA, May 8 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has opened registration for governments and experts to serve as Expert Reviewers on the Second-Order Draft (SOD) of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.

Following the Third Lead Author Meeting this January, authors of this Special Report have processed comments from expert reviewers of the First-Order Draft and prepared a second draft, which will open this week for governments and experts worldwide to review and provide comments.

“Our authors have worked hard to process the tens of thousands of comments received in our First-Order Draft to present a Second-Order Draft that accounts for the suggestions, perspectives and expertise of urban and climate experts around the world,” said Winston Chow, Co-Chair of Working Group II.

”We are proud to present this new draft and would like government representatives and more experts to come forward to review and help us refine the report to one that supports and inspires decision-making on climate action in cities around the world”.

The review of the Second-Order Draft is the next step in the IPCC’s rigorous multiple-stage review process. This is an essential part of the IPCC process to ensure a comprehensive, objective and transparent assessment of the current state of knowledge of the science related to climate change. Reviews are critical in preparing IPCC reports as they ensure that the report is scientifically rigorous, includes the widest range of perspectives, and remains relevant to the urgent challenges urban areas and communities face in a warming world and changing climate.

This Second-Order Draft will also include the first draft of the Summary for Policymakers (SPM), a key product that encapsulates the report’s findings and is aimed at informing policymakers shaping climate action worldwide.

Following receipt of the review comments, author teams will prepare final drafts of the full report and SPM, taking into account review comments received. The final draft of the report will be distributed to governments for a final round of written comments on the SPM, before governments meet in plenary session to approve the SPM line by line and accept the underlying report.

Scheduled for release in March 2027, the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities will be the first IPCC report published in the seventh assessment cycle. It is also the only special report in the current cycle.  The report aims to provide a timely assessment of the latest science related to climate change and cities, including climate impacts and risks, as well as adaptation and mitigation options.

All review comments submitted by experts or governments are addressed by the authors. The comments and the authors’ responses, together with the drafts, are published after the report is finalized.

Interested experts can register for participation in the review here. The registration of experts closes on 26 June 2026.

The SOD of the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities is available for Expert Review from 8 May to 3 July 2026.

During the Expert Review from October to December 2025, the First-Order Draft of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities received more than 32,000 comments from 1,365 registered Expert Reviewers around the world

For more information about the Expert Review or to speak to relevant IPCC Working Group Co-Chairs, please contact Woo Qiyun, Senior Communications Manager, IPCC Working Group II Technical Support Unit, media@ipccwg2.org .

For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int;
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120.

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, 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.  

Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is filling the position of

Science Officer

Deadline: to apply before May 1, 2026

Contract till 30 March 2030

About us

Singapore Management University is a place where high-level professionalism blends together with a healthy informality. The ‘family-like’ atmosphere among the SMU community fosters a culture where employees work, plan, organise and play together – building a strong collegiality and morale within the university.

Our commitment to attract and retain talent is ongoing. We offer attractive benefits and welfare, competitive compensation packages, and generous professional development opportunities – all to meet the work-life needs of our staff. No wonder, then, that SMU continues to be given numerous awards and recognition for its human resource excellence.

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GENEVA, April 23 – Experts and author teams of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are meeting this week at the Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile, to advance the first draft of the Working Group I contribution to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7). The Working Group I report covers the physical science related to climate change.

The meeting, scheduled from 21 to 24 April, is the second time the authors will be meeting in person following the first meeting held jointly with Working Group II and III in Paris in December 2025 where they began their work. The authors will meet two more times during the report preparation process to develop and refine the draft in line with IPCC’s principles and procedures.

“This is an important milestone in the preparation of the Working Group I contribution to the Seventh Assessment Report,” said IPCC Working Group I Co‑Chair Robert Vautard.

“Building on their initial discussions in Paris, authors are now advancing the detailed scientific assessment needed to develop a robust First Order Draft of our report. These scientific exchanges are at the heart of the IPCC assessment process,” he added.

The Expert Review of the First Order Draft of the Working Group I report is scheduled from 10 August to 2 October 2026. In addition, as with all other IPCC reports, the Working Group I report will undergo two further formal review stages, including a joint review by governments and experts, before the final government review and approval by IPCC member governments at the Panel’s plenary session prior to public release.

“The multi‑stage review process ensures that the report is comprehensive, balanced and policy‑relevant without being policy‑prescriptive. This is how the IPCC builds trust in its assessments,” said IPCC Working Group I Co‑Chair Xiaoye Zhang.

The author teams of the Working Group I contribution to AR7 include 193 Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors and Review Editors from 62 countries – 40% new to the IPCC process. 43% of these experts are women, and 46% come from developing countries and economies in transition including three from Chile.  

For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int;
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120.

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, 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.  

GENEVA, April 22 – Over 130 experts from more than 50 countries are meeting at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome, Italy, for the third Lead Author Meeting of the 2027 Methodology Report on Inventories for Short-lived Climate Forcers (SLCF) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“This meeting is a key moment in the development of the SLCF Methodology Report, as authors work together to consolidate the science and methodological approaches needed for a robust Second Order Draft,” said Takeshi Enoki, one the Co-Chairs of the IPCC’s Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI) responsible for preparing the report.

The SLCF Methodology Report aims to provide clear guidance on estimating emissions of key short-lived climate-forcing substances, including nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and others, which significantly contribute to global and regional air quality and climate change.

The author teams will be finalising the second order draft of the report. The draft will be open for review from 31 August to 25 October 2026.

“The Second Order Draft review is a crucial step in the IPCC process, allowing governments and experts to provide feedback that strengthens the clarity, robustness and usability of the guidance before it is finalised,” said Mazhar Hayat, the other TFI Co‑Chair.

The IPCC agreed upon the outline of the 2027 IPCC Methodology Report on Inventories for Short-lived Climate Forcers at its 61st Session held in in Sofia, Bulgaria from 27 July to 2 August 2024. It will be finalized in 2027. 

The TFI Bureau, also known as the Task Force Bureau, in consultation with relevant Working Groups’ Co-Chairs, selected the report’s Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors and Review Editors. The full list of authors and review editors is here.

For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int;
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120.

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, 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.