The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is finalizing its Sixth Assessment cycle, during which the IPCC has produced the Assessment reports of its three Working Groups, three Special Reports, a refinement to the Methodology Report and the Synthesis report. The Synthesis Report (SYR) is the last of the Sixth Assessment Report products, finalized in March 2023, in time to inform the 2023 Global Stocktake by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as mandated by Decision 1/CP.21 .
2023 is when countries will review progress towards the Paris Agreement goals, including the goal of keeping global warming to well below 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. The Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) provides an overview of the state of knowledge on the science of climate change, emphasizing new results since the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014. It is fully based on the reports of the three Working Groups of the IPCC, as well as on the three Special Reports on Global Warming of 1.5°C, on Climate Change and Land, and on the Ocean and the Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. It provides an integrated view of climate change as the final part of the Sixth Assessment Report. The Synthesis Report consists of the Summary for Policymakers and a Longer Report. It will be published as a stand-alone publication in the six official UN languages.
IPCC Procedures for the preparation, review, adoption and approval of the SYR can be found here. The SYR outline was agreed at the 52nd Panel Session of the IPCC in February 2020.
Since the IPCC was created in 1988, there have been 6 Synthesis Reports:
The AR6 Synthesis Report is based on the three Working Group contributions to the AR6 as well as on the three Special Reports prepared in this assessment cycle.
To support the Synthesis Report writing process, the SYR TSU organizes various meetings including Core Writing Team meetings. The Core Writing Team (CWT) is the group of authors who are preparing the Synthesis Report. The IPCC Bureau at its 58th Session in May 2020 selected the members of CWT from the author teams of the three IPCC Working Groups and the three Special Reports, reflecting balance in geographical distribution, gender, and representative of a range of expertise. The list of 30 Core Writing Team authors and 9 Review Editors can be found here. The CWT also includes the Chair, the IPCC Vice-Chairs, the Working Group Co-Chairs, the heads of the Working Group and Synthesis Report Technical Support Units, and the Secretary of the IPCC.
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The former IPCC Chair, Hoesung Lee, led the Core Writing Team of the Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report.
The Technical Support Unit (TSU) of the Synthesis Report of the AR6 is mandated to plan and manage the writing process of the SYR, including arranging author meetings, assisting the author team while drafting the SYR, ensuring quality control of the SYR and ensuring compliance with the IPCC Processes and Procedures and Panel decisions. The TSU SYR is established under the responsibility of the Chair of the IPCC. The SYR TSU is located in Seoul, Republic of Korea and financially supported by the Government of the Republic of Korea.
At the 58th Session of the Bureau (Electronic session, 19-20 May 2020), the Chair established a Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) for the Synthesis Report (SYR) of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) to support the development of the SYR. The SYR SSC comprised the whole IPCC Bureau of the sixth assessment cycle, excluding those members who serve as Review Editors to the SYR.