GENEVA, 30 April – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has opened the first order draft of the Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) to expert review, marking an important advance in preparation of the flagship report.
The review runs from 29 April to 23 June 2019, and interested experts can register until midnight CET on 16 June 2019 at https://apps.ipcc.ch/comments/ar6wg1/fod/register.php.
IPCC reports go through repeated drafts and reviews to help ensure that the report provides a balanced and comprehensive assessment of the latest scientific findings.
The Working Group I contribution to the AR6, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, will assess large-scale climate changes, climate processes and feedback and regional climate information.
During the review, experts may comment on the structure and comprehensiveness of the report and suggest improvements on the presentation of materials graphically or through tables. They may also propose revisions, relevant additional papers with full citation, and shorten text without losing relevant information.
IPCC reports undergo multiple stages of reviews, first by experts and then by both governments and experts. Experts who comment on this draft will also be invited to comment on the second order draft. All expert R\reviewers will be acknowledged in the published report, due to be finalized in 2021.
More information on the role of an expert reviewer is available in Annex 1 of Appendix A to the Principles Governing IPCC Work.
Additional information explaining the Expert Review process is available here: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2017/08/AR6_WGI_FOD_Guidance_Note.pdf
For more information:
Working Group I Technical Support Unit, tsu@ipcc-wg1.fr
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Jonathan Lynn, + 41 22 730 8066, Werani Zabula, + 41 22 730 8120
Notes for editors
About 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 (now UN Environment) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and potential future risks, and to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. It has 195 member states.
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.
The IPCC assesses the thousands of scientific papers published each year to inform policymakers about the state of knowledge on climate change. The IPCC identifies where there is agreement in the scientific community, where there are differences 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 (the physical science basis of climate change); Working Group II (impacts, adaptation and vulnerability); and Working Group III (mitigation of climate change). It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for estimating anthropogenic emissions and removals of greenhouse gases. All of these are supported by Technical Support Units guiding the production of IPCC assessment reports and other products.
IPCC Assessment Reports consist of contributions from each of the three working groups and a Synthesis Report. Special Reports undertake a shorter assessment of specific cross-disciplinary issues that usually span more than one working group.
About the 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, the IPCC accepted an invitation from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to provide a special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, and decided to produce two other Special Reports, a Methodology Report and the Sixth Assessment Report.
Global Warming of 1.5°C, An IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C 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 was released on 8 October 2018.
The IPCC will finalize three reports in 2019:
- 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories in May 2019,
- 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 in August 2019, and
- Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate in September 2019.
The three working group contributions to AR6 will be released in 2021, and the AR6 Synthesis Report, integrating all the products in this assessment cycle, will be finalized in the first half of 2022.
For more information go to www.ipcc.ch