2017/16/MA
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MONTREAL, September 8 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is meeting in Montreal, Canada to agree on the outlines of the Working Group contributions to the Sixth Assessment Report among other things. After the meeting on 10 September 2017, there will be a press conference to discuss the approved outlines and other results from the meeting.
The press conference will be streamed live on our Facebook channel www.Facebook.com/IPCC (@IPCC). It is expected to start at 18.30 Montreal time ((22:30 GMT, 00.30 CEST (11 September), 07.30 JST (11 September)). The time of the press conference will depend on the time the meeting ends. The exact time will be announced on our social media channels on the day before the start.
Journalists following the press conference can submit questions by sending an email to ipcc-questions@wmo.int.
The draft outlines being considered are available here:
Working Group I contribution to AR6 – http://bit.ly/2vQGoqR
Working Group II contribution to AR6 – http://bit.ly/2gMfGpa
Working Group III contribution to AR6 – http://bit.ly/2wMEerS
All the documents for the meeting are available here: http://bit.ly/2xSAF1e.
For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Follow IPCC on Facebook, Twitter @ipcc_ch, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Notes for editors
What is the IPCC?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988 to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. It has 195 member states.
IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information 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.
The IPCC assesses the thousands of scientific papers published each year to tell policymakers what we know and don’t know about the risks related to climate change. The IPCC identifies where there is agreement in the scientific community, where there are differences of opinion, and where further research is needed. It does not conduct its own research.
To produce its reports, the IPCC mobilizes hundreds of scientists. These scientists and officials are drawn from diverse backgrounds. Only a dozen permanent staff work in the IPCC’s Secretariat.
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 Assessment Reports consist of contributions from each of the three working groups and a Synthesis Report. Special Reports undertake an assessment of cross-disciplinary issues that span more than one working group and are shorter and more focused than the main assessments.
Sixth Assessment Cycle
At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At its 43rd Session in April 2016, it decided to produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report and AR6.
The first of these special reports, to be finalized in September 2018, is Global Warming of 1.5ºC, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.
The Methodology Report, entitled 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, will be delivered in May 2019.
In September 2019 the IPCC will also finalize two Special Reports: the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, and Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems.
The IPCC will approve the outlines of AR6 in September 2017. The three working contributions will be released in 2021 and the Synthesis Report in April 2022.