GENEVA, Oct 18 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will hold a scoping meeting in Singapore from 21 to 23 October 2019 to draft the outline of the Synthesis Report for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6 SYR). The meeting will bring together 80 experts from some 38 countries and IPCC Bureau members.
The Synthesis Report, due in 2022, will provide policymakers with the most up-to-date scientific information relevant to climate change by drawing on information from the reports the IPCC is preparing in the current assessment cycle. It will serve as the basis for international negotiations and will be ready in time for the first global stocktake under the Paris Agreement in 2023.
The meeting in Singapore will draft the outline of the contents of the Synthesis Report for consideration by the IPCC when it next meets in 2020.
The Synthesis Report will be written under the leadership of IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. It will integrate findings from the three Special Reports of the current cycle already completed: Global Warming of 1.5°C, Climate Change and Land, and The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. It will also be based on the content of the three Working Group Assessment Reports to be released in 2021: The Physical Science Basis; Mitigation of Climate Change; and Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.
Following the scoping meeting in Singapore, the IPCC Bureau will meet from 24 to 25 October 2019. These meetings are closed to media.
More information about the AR6 SYR is available here:
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/
Media briefing
Prior to the scoping meeting, Mr. Hoesung Lee, IPCC Chair will give a media briefing on 21 October 2019 at 8:30 – 9:15 a.m. local time, in conference room Pisces at the Resorts World Convention Centre (Level 1), Sentosa.
Opening ceremony
The scoping meeting will be opened by H.E. Mr. Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources of Singapore; Mr. Hoesung Lee, IPCC Chair and Mr. Abdalah Mokssit, IPCC Secretary on 21 October 2019 at 10:00–10:30 a.m. in conference room Leo at the Resorts World Convention Centre (Level 1). Media are cordially invited to attend the opening ceremony.
Symposium
A Symposium on Sea Level Rise in Southeast Asia open to the public will take place on 23 October 2019 at 7.00 – 9.00 p.m. at Singapore Management University, Mochtar Riady Auditorium. The event will be organized by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) of Singapore and the Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS), with support from Singapore Management University (SMU). The Symposium will discuss what climate change and in particular, sea level rise means for Singapore and the Southeast Asian region.
IPCC representatives who will be participating in this event include Mr. Abdalah Mokssit, IPCC Secretary; Ms. Ko Barrett, IPCC Vice-Chair; Mr. Gregory Flato, IPCC Working Group I Vice-Chair. Other distinguished speakers at the event will include H.E. Ms. Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources of Singapore; Mr. Erland Källén, Director, CCRS; Ms. Leonie Lee, Director of Energy and Climate Policy Division of MEWR, Mr. Winston Chow, Associate Professor of the School of Social Sciences, SMU and Ms. Estella Ho, Student Representative, SMU.
To attend the events listed above opened to the media please contact Mr. Samuel Lee (samuel_lee@mewr.gov.sg) from the host organization.
For more information contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
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 (UNEP) 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. In the same year the
UN General Assembly endorsed the action by WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC.
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 emissions and removals. 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.
The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C was released in October 2018. The Methodology Report 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories was released in May 2019. The Special Report on Climate Change and Land was released on 8 August 2019 and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate on 25 September 2019.
The three Working Group contributions to the AR6 will be finalized in 2021 and the AR6 Synthesis Report will be completed in the first half of 2022.
For more information go to www.ipcc.ch