IPBES-IPCC co-sponsored workshop on biodiversity and climate change
14-17 December 2020
Opening statement by IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee
Excellencies, dear colleagues
Thank you for inviting me to join you for the opening of this important meeting.
I am very grateful to the governments of the United Kingdom and Norway for hosting this workshop.
I thank the IPBES and IPCC Bureaus, including my colleagues from IPCC Working Group II, for their detailed and pragmatic efforts to find the most useful and productive ways of bringing biodiversity and climate change issues together.
And I congratulate the Scientific Steering Committee for developing an agenda that promises a valuable and fruitful exchange of ideas, and IPBES for the organizational arrangements enabling this workshop to proceed as scheduled in these difficult circumstances.
Two days ago we marked the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Many governments announced ambitious new pledges on climate action.
But the latest reports from the WMO and UNEP suggest we are still far from stabilizing the climate in line with the Paris accord.
True, emissions dipped in 2020, but that was a short-term response to the COVID-19 pandemic, not the result of policies to stabilize the climate.
And in any case our assessments must consider data over a longer period, not just one year. The evidence over the longer term on climate change is clear.
COVID-19, its impacts and the responses will occupy scientists for many years.
But as researchers investigate the origins of this health emergency, they will also look at linkages with other planetary emergencies such as climate change and biodiversity.
This co-sponsored workshop is therefore extremely timely, as it brings together our two scientific communities to probe the interactions between biodiversity and climate change.
The participation of the IPCC in this interdisciplinary workshop is particularly appropriate because it reflects the unprecedented cross-disciplinary nature of the Sixth Assessment Report that we are now working on despite the many challenges.
It is urgent to bring biodiversity to the forefront of discussions regarding land- and ocean-based climate mitigation and adaptation. This workshop will address the synergies and trade-offs between biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
This will include exploring the impact of climate change on biodiversity, the capacity of species to adapt to climate change, the resilience of ecosystems under climate change and the contribution of ecosystems to climate feedback and mitigation.
While the workshop report is not an IPCC product, its conclusions and your deliberations will still constitute a valuable contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
I wish you collegial and fruitful discussions over the next four days.
Thank you for your attention.
BONN/GENEVA, Dec 13 – Biodiversity loss and climate change are inseparable threats to humanity that must be addressed together. They are also deeply interconnected in ways that pose complex challenges to effective policy-making and action.
Fifty of the world’s leading experts, drawn in a balanced way from the domains of climate change and biodiversity, including many who are experts in their interaction, will begin a ground-breaking four-day workshop on Monday, bringing together, for the first time at this level, the two global expert communities, focused on opportunities to meet both climate change- and biodiversity-related goals.
Co-sponsored by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the workshop was initially planned as a meeting to be held in London in May, hosted by the Government of the United Kingdom with additional sponsorship by the Government of Norway. As a result of COVID-19 restrictions, it will now be held as a virtual meeting this week, with the opening session expected to be addressed by Zac Goldsmith, the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Pacific and the Environment and Maren Hersleth Holsen, the Norwegian State Secretary in the Ministry of Climate and the Environment.
“It is urgent to bring biodiversity to the forefront of discussions regarding land- and ocean-based climate mitigation and adaptation. This workshop will address the synergies and trade-offs between biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “This will include exploring the impact of climate change on biodiversity, the capacity of species to adapt to climate change, the resilience of ecosystems under climate change and the contribution of ecosystems to climate feedback and mitigation,” he added.
Under the guidance of a 12-person Scientific Steering Committee, co-chaired by Hans-Otto Pörtner, Co-Chair IPCC Working Group II, and Robert Scholes, Co-Chair of the IPBES Assessment of Land Degradation and Restoration, a workshop report will be produced and is expected to be published in the first quarter of 2021, following a period of peer review.
“Climate change is already impacting nature – from genes to ecosystems. An integrated approach to both biodiversity loss and climate change is required if we are to properly address these challenges, including by relying more on nature to help mitigate climate change,” said Ana María Hernández Salgar, Chair of IPBES. “The workshop report will provide relevant information for the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the post-2020 biodiversity framework and – more broadly – the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Building on IPBES assessment reports – the Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and other IPBES assessments, IPCC assessments, and the three Special Reports released during the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) cycle, as well as other ongoing work and the latest scientific literature, the outcomes of the workshop will also contribute to the scoping of the IPBES assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health and feed into the IPCC AR6 Working Group and Synthesis Reports.
The final workshop report will be provided to the IPCC and IPBES Plenaries for their information and may be shared by the secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with their respective Conference of the Parties as an information document.
It is important to note that IPBES and IPCC co-sponsorship does not imply IPBES or IPCC endorsement of the workshop proceedings or any recommendations or conclusions of the meeting. Neither the papers presented at the workshop, nor the report of its proceedings will have been subject to IPBES or IPCC intergovernmental review.
For enquiries please contact:
IPBES
media@ipbes.net
www.ipbes.net
IPCC
ipcc-media@wmo.int
www.ipcc.ch
Note to Editors:
IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body comprising more than 130 member Governments. Established by Governments in 2012, it provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet’s biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people, as well as the tools and methods to protect and sustainably use these vital natural assets.
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 political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
Statement to the Climate Ambition Summit, 12 December 2020
Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC
Excellencies, distinguished delegates!
Thank you for this invitation.
I was in Paris for COP21 and saw how governments reached an agreement, based on the findings of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report.
Science tells us the climate is already changing because of human activity.
We are currently on a path risking serious, pervasive, and irreversible impacts.
But science also shows us the pathways that can lead to a sustainable and prosperous future.
In Paris, you also asked the IPCC for a report on global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
That report tells us:
Our last three special reports show that the need – and possibility — for urgent action are clear.
Governments are responding to these findings with new commitments which are not yet enough to keep warming below 1.5 degrees, and we look forward to hearing stronger commitments today in line with climate science.
Science continues to advance, and the IPCC is working on the Sixth Assessment Report despite the many challenges.
We will have more knowledge to share at COP26 and beyond.
But you already know enough to act today. Thank you
GENEVA, 7 Dec – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has opened a meeting in hybrid format to consider essential business as work on the Sixth Assessment Report advances amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Representatives of the IPCC’s 195 Member countries, meeting in the 53rd Session of the Panel, will convene for the first time in a format combining exchanges in writing and online discussions, as a face-to-face meeting remains impossible.
The main business of the 53rd Session will be to agree the IPCC budget for the coming year. This Session of the Panel will reconvene in early 2021 to consider other urgent business matters.
The Panel is meeting as members of the IPCC Bureau and authors continue their work on AR6. The pandemic has led to delays of 3-4 months in some of the milestones for the preparation of AR6 this year, and the release dates of the report remain under review.
In a letter to delegates opening the Session, IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee thanked the Secretariat for finding a way to hold a meeting that was consistent with the IPCC Principles and Procedures and did not disadvantage any delegates on the basis of connectivity or time zones.
“Their determination to keep the business of the IPCC flowing smoothly parallels the huge efforts and creativity of the Working Groups and their authors and Technical Support Units to advance work on the Sixth Assessment Report despite the pandemic,” he said.
The IPCC meeting will run from 7 to 14 December.
For more information contact:
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 (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, IPCC scientists volunteer their time to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group I, 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 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.
About the Sixth Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014 and provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement.
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 IPCC also publishes special reports on more specific issues between assessment reports.
Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius 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 launched in October 2018.
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 was launched in August 2019, and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate was released in September 2019.
In May 2019 the IPCC released the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
The contributions of the three IPCC Working Groups to the Sixth Assessment Report are currently under preparation. The concluding Synthesis Report is due in 2022.
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.
The website includes outreach materials including videos about the IPCC and video recordings from outreach events conducted as webinars or live-streamed events.
Most videos published by the IPCC can be found on our YouTube channel.
“Review is an essential part of the IPCC process. Since the IPCC is an intergovernmental body, review of IPCC documents should involve both peer review by experts and review by governments.”[1]
Every IPCC report goes through several drafts and reviews to ensure it is as robust, comprehensive and balanced as possible.
The review process is critical for ensuring the assessment is scientifically rigorous, exhaustive, objective and transparent; broad participation in the IPCC review process is one of the core strengths of IPCC assessments.
The First-Order Draft is open to review by experts; the Second-Order Draft is reviewed by governments and experts; and governments send comments on the Summary for Policymakers, and the Overview Chapter in the case of a Methodology Report, during the Final Government Distribution. In the case of a Synthesis Report draft, it undergoes a single simultaneous government and expert review; followed by a government review of the final draft through the Final Government Distribution.
All review comments submitted by experts or governments are addressed by the authors. The comments and the author responses, together with the drafts, are published after the report is finalized.
Experts are invited to register for the review through the website of the IPCC Working Group or Task Force responsible for the report.
Because the aim of the expert review is to get the widest possible participation and broadest possible expertise, those who register are accepted unless they fail to demonstrate any relevant qualification.
Sometimes the Working Group or Task Force Bureau concerned will also invite specific individuals to register to take part in the expert review, for instance if they have a particular area of expertise to contribute. This does not give them more legitimacy than any other expert reviewer.
Expert reviewers may submit comments on one sentence or section of a report, or a whole chapter of the full report. They may consider scientific substance or the structure of the report. Often they will point out a published paper that the report authors may not have included in their assessment, but which could be relevant.
Expert reviewers agree not to cite, quote or distribute the draft, because at this stage the report is still a work in progress and has not yet been formally considered by the IPCC. They must submit their comments through the IPCC website.
Expert reviewers who submit comments are credited by name in the final report for their contribution. Such comments are a vital contribution to the quality of the assessment. But because the review is essentially open to all through a self-declaration of expertise, it follows that having been a registered expert reviewer does not by itself serve as a qualification of the expert or support their credibility in a different context.
For
more information on this topic, please see our Factsheet on the IPCC
review process.
[1] Principles Governing IPCC Work, paragraph 3
GENEVA, 27 Nov – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will open the Second-Order Draft of the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) government and expert review next week, as preparations for the flagship report continue to advance.
The review runs from 4 December to midnight Central European Time on 29 January 2021. Registration for experts opened on 27 November and will be possible until midnight CET on 22 January. Registration details are here.
The Working Group II contribution to AR6, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, will cover the impacts of climate change on human and natural systems, their vulnerabilities and the capacities they have to adapt to climate change. It will also cover options for creating a sustainable future for all through an equitable and integrated approach to adaptation efforts at all scales, linking to the assessment of climate mitigation options by Working Group III.
“Given current events and the increasing urgency to build back better after COVID-19, we anticipate that there will be great interest in several areas of our report such as the health chapter and the chapters on ecosystems, food, water, cities and climate-resilient development,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, Co-Chair of Working Group II. “Furthermore, our report focuses on regional climate change impacts and adaptation options that will be relevant for local and regional decision-makers around the globe,” he said.
This version of the report includes the first drafts of the Summary for Policymakers as well as the Technical Summary and the WGII Global to Regional Atlas. All content builds on the First-Order Draft and the expert review comments submitted on this draft. Working Group II undertook a set of virtual meetings in August 2020 with the participation of over 250 experts to advance work on the report amid the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our authors worked day and night under difficult circumstances to finalize the Second-Order Draft on time. Now, we ask all experts, stakeholders and decision makers to participate in this review process,” said Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of Working Group II.
“We especially invite experts, practitioners and policymakers from the global South for their views on the draft to ensure that the assessment is reflective of the needs and concerns of individuals, communities, and public and private sector institutions around the world. Only in this way will we be able to identify a sufficiently diverse range of solutions options to help us adapt to climate change in an equitable and sustainable manner,” she said.
The agreed outline of the report can be found here. The list of authors of the report can be found here.
The review of drafts is an essential part of the IPCC process, helping ensure that a report provides a balanced and comprehensive assessment of the latest scientific findings.
For more information contact:
IPCC Working Group II Technical Support Unit
Sina Löschke, e-mail: sina.loeschke@ipcc-wg2.awi.de
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 (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, IPCC scientists volunteer their time to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group I, 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 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.
About the Sixth Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014 and provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement.
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 IPCC also publishes special reports on more specific issues between assessment reports.
Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius 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 launched in October 2018.
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 was launched in August 2019.
The Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate was released in September 2019.
In May 2019 the IPCC released the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
The contributions of the three IPCC Working Groups to the Sixth Assessment Report are currently under preparation. The concluding Synthesis Report is due in 2022.
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.
IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee gave the opening keynote address to the 2020 City Week London Conference.
IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee
GENEVA, 31 Aug – Thirty years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, not yet two years old, completed its First Assessment Report (FAR), with the approval of the report’s Overview at the Fourth Session of the IPCC in Sundsvall, Sweden.
Today, IPCC authors are busy working on the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), in the midst of challenging conditions due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the First Assessment Report , all IPCC reports have provided policymakers and the public with a robust, rigorous, exhaustive and transparent assessment of the state of knowledge of climate change. Specifically, over the years, the work of the IPCC has shown constant improvements in understanding, scope, policy relevance and interdisciplinarity. This has largely contributed to a massive increase in public awareness of climate change, and a greater readiness of governments and other actors to address the challenge.
Progression in understanding
Then as now, each report provides an assessment of confidence in findings, and identifies key sources of uncertainties and knowledge gaps, which contributes to the maturation of knowledge and the stimulation of further research.
From the First to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), there has been substantial progress in understanding of climate science.
To give just one example, on the attribution of the causes of climate change, the First Assessment Report reported global warming and sea level rise, and stressed :
“Emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases (…) These increases will increase the greenhouse effect, resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth’s surface. (…) The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect from observations is not likely for a decade or more.”
Since the First Assessment Report, global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase, leading to further global warming, with characteristics that had been correctly anticipated in the first generations of climate models.
The Synthesis Report of the Fifth Assessment Report in 2014 stated that :
“Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems.”
This
improved understanding over the course of the past three decades can be
explained by exponential rise in publications of scientific literature related
to climate change, meaning that the number of scientific publications to be
assessed in each IPCC report has grown.
Indeed, for the 2018 and 2019 IPCC Special Reports on Global Warming of 1.5ºC, Climate Change and Land, and on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, IPCC authors assessed around 20,000 publications and considered around 100,000 comments from more than 2,500 experts and governments in preparing these three special reports.
Progression of scope and content
Over time, the focus of IPCC reports has expanded from establishing the nature of the climate problem to zooming into regional characteristics of climate risks of impacts and exploring possible solutions to the challenge of climate change and impacts from the response options. This has led to the range of disciplines included in the assessment also expanding over the years, and the IPCC has played a key role in the integration of knowledge across research disciplines.
The First Assessment Report puts together emerging thoughts in economic and social issues of climate change, recognising that most socio-economic impacts and consequences will be “major” and “considerable”, in spite of uncertainties.
The First Assessment Report stated with confidence that carbon dioxide (CO2) is responsible for over half of the greenhouse gas effect in the past, and that continued “Business as Usual” emissions would commit us to increased concentrations for centuries.
It acknowledged that there were many uncertainties particularly with regard to the timing, magnitude and regional patterns, and that predictions were on the conservative side, with climate change likely to be greater.
The report was clear that the potentially serious consequences of climate change gave sufficient reasons to begin adopting response strategies that could be justified immediately – then – even in the face of significant uncertainties.
When we look back at the First Assessment Report, we are also struck by the continuities with our current work. Already in the First Assessment Report we had a contribution looking at solutions from Working Group III, then called the Response Strategies Working Group.
The First Assessment Report found that sustainable development should be the basis for continued economic growth in both industrialised and developing countries and that the most effective response strategies were those that were beneficial for reasons other than climate change; cost effective and compatible with sustainable economic growth; serving multiple socio-economic and environmental purposes; flexible and phased; and country-specific.
The report also gave options for reducing climate change, including efficiency measures, phasing out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), sustainable forestry, clean energy. It stated that “One option that governments may wish to consider is the setting of targets for CO2 and other greenhouse gases.”
The main message from the Fifth Assessment Report is that the scientific case for urgent action on climate change is clearer than ever. We have very little time before the window of opportunity to stay within 2°C closes forever but we still have that opportunity. The choice is within our hands. The Fifth Assessment Report provides a framework to support good decisions and better integrates adaptation, mitigation, development and equity.
In the Sixth Assessment Report each of the three Working Groups will bring different perspectives to solutions and response options, through assessments of climate information relevant for decision-making, risk assessment, adaptation, mitigation, climate-resilient development pathways, and sustainable development.
A focus on risks and solutions and their regional specificities will be the hallmark of the Sixth Assessment Report.
This solution orientation underpins the policy relevance of the IPCC, which serves as an interface between the policymaking and scientific communities.
Enhanced policy relevance
At the international level, the First Assessment Report gave impetus to the political process leading to the negotiations for an effective United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the global body for negotiating climate agreements.
The Second Assessment Report (SAR) was largely influential in defining the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. The Third Assessment Report (TAR) was influential in defining the rules of meeting the targets set out in the Kyoto Protocol. It also provided strong grounds for starting the process towards the development of a global climate goal. The Fourth Assessment Report informed the decision on the ultimate objective (2°C) and created a strong basis for a post Kyoto Protocol agreement and long-term cooperative action.
The Fifth Assessment Report informed the review of the 2°C objective in the context for preparing the UNFCCC’s Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015. The Paris Agreement agrees to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”.
Strengthening of the IPCC processes and procedures
Over the years the IPCC has introduced increasingly rigorous procedures, including a conflict of interest policy, an enhanced role for review editors, and an error protocol, to strengthen confidence in its assessments.
From the start, the IPCC was concerned to ensure the participation of scientists from developing countries in our work. Indeed, alongside the three Working Groups, the IPCC then had a Special Committee on the Participation of Developing Countries, which contributed to the First Assessment Report.
We continue to work on this question, and there is much to do, but we passed an important milestone with the Special Report on Climate Change and Land, released last year, where over half of the author team came from developing countries.
Toward the Sixth Assessment Report
Halfway through the AR6 cycle, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the IPCC has again risen to the challenge.
Because the pandemic has for now prevented large-scale in-person meetings, all our working groups have reorganized their author coordination activities online, building on the existing use of teleconference and other remote working methods, and enabling us to continue advancing the preparations for the Sixth Assessment Report.
I would like to pay tribute here to the commitment and dedication of our authors and expert reviewers, who volunteer their time and expertise to the IPCC. I also acknowledge the precious support of our member governments and observer organizations, especially those member governments of both developing and developed countries that contribute financial resources to the IPCC Trust Fund. Further, I acknowledge the valuable contribution of our Bureau members and the staff of our Technical Staff Units and Secretariat at this difficult time.
I am confident, given the scale of new knowledge, and the dedication of authors and expert reviewers, that the Sixth Assessment Report we are now preparing will once again provide policymakers and the public with a robust, rigorous, exhaustive and transparent assessment of the state of knowledge of climate change and do more – providing novel dimensions to our understanding of climate change and the options for addressing it, from knowledge relevant to decision-making in cities and other sub-national levels to a better understanding of the implications of climate action and its costs and benefits for socio-economic development.
Konrad Steffen, 1952-2020
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is greatly saddened to learn of the loss of Konrad “Koni” Steffen who passed away aged 68 on 8 August 2020 in an accident in Greenland.
Professor Steffen contributed to the IPCC as a Lead Author on the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate and on the landmark Fifth Assessment Report.
Professor Steffen was Director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and a former director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His passion was the polar regions and he devoted his career to research on climate change and the cryosphere in the Arctic and Antarctic. He was also a remarkable science communicator.
Steffen is highly recognized for his long-term scientific monitoring work of the Greenland ice sheet. Since 1990 every spring he went to the Swiss Camp meteorological base station in Greenland, where he worked with his colleagues collecting data on snow, ice and the atmosphere. “The poles of the Earth are of great importance for the climatic balance of our planet. More research and knowledge of how they work is urgently needed,” Steffen wrote on the website of WSL.
Steffen attended ETH Zurich, from which he received a Diploma in 1977 and a Doctor of Science degree in 1984. He was a professor at the University of Colorado, at EPFL in Lausanne and at ETH in Zurich. He was born on 2 January 1952 in Zurich, Switzerland. A dual US and Swiss citizen, he was married and a father of two. He was a member of the International Glaciological Society, the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society. “We will deeply miss Koni, but are committed to continuing his mission towards making a contribution, big or small, to create a difference,” his colleagues from the Swiss Polar Institute said in a statement.
See below excerpt of a video of Konrad Steffen at WMO’s 2019 High Mountain Summit.
The IPCC Secretariat gratefully acknowledges sources providing information used to draft this text, which are available online or provided by third parties. Please notify any inaccuracies to the IPCC Secretariat at ipcc-media@wmo.int.
Reissued on 12 August clarifying the literature cut-off date.
GENEVA, Aug 12 – Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which assesses the mitigation of climate change, has updated the schedule for its contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) and postponed its final Lead Author Meeting for AR6, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to delay scientific work.
The postponement, and other changes to the Working Group III schedule, now means that the report will not be approved before the Glasgow Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, which has itself been postponed to November 2021.
Working Group III’s Fourth Lead Author Meeting is now scheduled to take place for five days between 12 and 30 April 2021. It was previously scheduled for 11-15 January 2021.
Among other changes to the Working Group III schedule, the cut-off date for submission of scientific literature for publication, to be included in the assessment moves from 19 September 2020 to 14 December 2020, and the government and expert review of the report’s Second Order Draft and first draft of its Summary for Policymakers will move from 19 October to 13 December 2020 to 18 January to 14 March 2021.
“These are the earliest dates possible to produce a credible draft in terms of scientific rigour and inclusivity while avoiding an undue overlap with the review of the Working Group II report,” said Jim Skea, Co-Chair of Working Group III.
An internal consultation by Working Group III found that authors and experts are facing substantial challenges to their working conditions because of the pandemic.
“We are very grateful to our authors who are continuing to work on the report despite these challenging conditions,” said Working Group III Co-Chair Priyadarshi Shukla. “This work is further complicated by the impact of the pandemic on the broader scientific community, which is delaying the production of scientific literature for assessment in our report.”
Working Group III’s third Lead Author Meeting was originally planned to be held in Quito, Ecuador, in April, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the meeting was moved online. A report from the Working Group III Technical Support Unit in July provides insights into the benefits and trade-offs of hosting large virtual meetings. It can be accessed here.
Among other changes to the work programme for the Sixth Assessment Report, Working Group I, which assesses the physical science basis of climate change, has also extended its literature cut-off date and postponed its Fourth Lead Author Meeting, and Working Group II, which deals with impacts and adaptation, has extended some of this year’s deadlines.
For more information contact:
IPCC Working Group III Technical Support Unit
Sigourney Luz (Communications Manager), e-mail: s.luz@ipcc-wg3.ac.uk
IPCC Press Office Jonathan Lynn, +41 22 730 8066, e-mail: 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 political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, IPCC scientists volunteer their time to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group I, 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 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.
About the Sixth Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014 and provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement.
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 IPCC also publishes special reports on more specific issues between assessment reports.
Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius 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 launched in October 2018.
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 was launched in August 2019, and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate was released in September 2019.
In May 2019 the IPCC released the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
The contributions of the three IPCC Working Groups to the Sixth Assessment Report are currently under preparation. The concluding Synthesis Report is due in 2022.
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.