KYOTO, Japan, May 10 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will hold a press conference in Kyoto, Japan, on Monday 13 May 2019, following the 49th Session of the Panel which is due to end on 12 May.
The press conference, which will start at 10:00 a.m. Japan time (21:00 New York/EDT (12 May), 01:00 GMT, 03:00 Geneva/CEST), will be live-streamed at www.youtube.com/IPCCGeneva or www.facebook.com/IPCC.
The press conference is taking place at the Grand Prince Hotel Kyoto, 1092-2 Iwakura Hataedacho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto 606-8505.
Media representatives not attending the press conference in person can submit questions remotely though www.sli.do entering the event code P-49 on the sli.do page.
The press conference will be in two parts. In the first part IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee and other senior officers will take questions on the outcomes of the 49th Session, the IPCC work programme and forthcoming reports, and other matters.
In the second part of the press conference, the Co-Chairs of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Eduardo Calvo Buendía and Kiyoto Tanabe, will present the methodology report 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, which is being considered by the Panel, subject to adoption and acceptance of the report.
Media representatives must register to attend the press conference in person and/or to access the adopted Overview Chapter of the 2019 Refinement and press release under embargo. Registration details are in this media advisory.
The IPCC expects to make embargoed materials available to registered media late on Sunday 12 May.
The IPCC Chair, Task Force Co-Chairs and other senior officials and authors will be available for interview following the press conference. Interview requests can be submitted here.
Besides considering the 2019 Refinement the IPCC will also transact other business, including consideration of a report from the IPCC Task Group on Gender. A full agenda of the meeting can be found here.
For more information contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int , Phone in Kyoto: +81-3-5521-8247
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.
IPCC Methodologies
The IPCC’s Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI) develops and refines an internationally agreed methodology and software for the calculation and reporting of national greenhouse gas emissions and removals, and encourages the use of this methodology by countries participating in the IPCC and by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Parties to the UNFCCC regularly report greenhouse gas emissions and removals to the UNFCCC. By communicating information on greenhouse gas emissions and actions to reduce them, this transparency and reporting system helps Parties understand ambition and progress on climate action.
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.
Besides the methodology report 2019 Refinement, the IPCC will finalize two Special Reports in 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
- 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 will be finalized in the first half of 2022.
For more information go to www.ipcc.ch