GENEVA, June 18 – Registration is now open to review the second order draft of the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2019 Refinement). The 2019 Refinement is an update to the guidelines or methodologies that countries use to estimate their anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases. The refinement of the IPCC’s previous guidelines published in 2006 is necessary to provide an updated and sound scientific basis for supporting the preparation and continuous improvement of national greenhouse gas inventories.
IPCC reports go through multiple stages of review to ensure an objective and comprehensive assessment of the latest science. The first draft is reviewed by experts, the second draft by governments and experts and the final draft by governments only. The second draft of methodology report is reviewed alongside a first draft of the Overview Chapter.
The Co-Chairs of the IPCC’s Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI), Kiyoto Tanabe and Eduardo Calvo Buendia, stressed the importance of the review in the IPCC process. Therefore they invite governments and experts from all over the world to comment on the accuracy and completeness of the draft’s scientific information as well as its overall balance.
The preparation of the methodology report is managed by two Co-Chairs, coming from a developed and a developing country, and supported by an international staff known as Technical Support Unit.
The government and expert review will start on 2 July 2018 for a 10-week period. It will end at midnight Geneva time (GMT+2) on 9 September 2018. Review Editors will make sure that all comments submitted are afforded appropriate consideration by the authors of the report. All comments together with responses by the authors will be published along with the report when it is finalized.
People wishing to be an expert reviewer of the 2019 Refinement must register through the TFI website here . Registration opens on 18 June and closes at midnight Geneva time (GMT+2) on 2 September 2018.
For more information, contact:
IPCC TFI Technical Support Unit, Email: 2019_refinement_review@iges.or.jp
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int, Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120
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Notes for editors
What is the IPCC?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1988 to deliver comprehensive assessments of the scientific, technical and socio-economic state of knowledge of climate change, its impacts and risks, and response strategies.
Its contribution to understanding climate change has been fundamental to creating global agreements on common goals, the last of which is the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, including by holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 ºC above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ºC above pre-industrial levels. Governments agreed to set Nationally Determined Contributions to reach this goal, which will be reviewed regularly.
In its last report, the Fifth Assessment Report, the IPCC found that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, are extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century. It found that limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The IPCC is organized in three thematic Working Groups, and a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI). The TFI is responsible for the development of internationally agreed methodologies for countries to estimate their emissions of greenhouse gases. The latest comprehensive guidelines produced by TFI were produced in 2006, titled the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2006 IPCC Guidelines). The 2019 Refinement will update and supplement the 2006 IPCC Guidelines.
Sixth Assessment Cycle
At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At its 42nd Session in October 2015 it elected a new Bureau that would oversee the work on this report and Special Reports to be produced in the assessment cycle. 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.
In 2019 the IPCC will also finalize two Special Reports: the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, andClimate 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 in time for the first global stocktake in 2023 by the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
For more information, including links to the IPCC reports, go to: www.ipcc.ch