GENEVA, Dec 21 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Scholarship Programme has awarded 33 doctoral and post-doctoral candidates from developing countries and countries with economies in transition with scholarships. These will boost the new scientific research in developing nations and will provide critical support to the early career scientists to successfully complete their respective research and their doctoral theses. The 33 applicants were selected from over 320 applications received for this Sixth Round of Awards (2021-2023).

Twenty-seven of the 33 scholarships were announced during the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Awards Ceremony on 29 October 2021 in Monaco.

Funded by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and their partner:

Funded by the Cuomo Foundation:

The IPCC Scholarship Programme has continued to benefit from the generous support  of its funding partners: the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation (2011-date), the Cuomo Foundation (2013-date). From 2021, the Scholarship Programme received additional support from the AXA Research Fund.  

The AXA Research Fund has generously provided funding for:

The IPCC developed its scholarship programme after being jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007 for its work in building up and disseminating knowledge about climate change and laying foundations for response options. The IPCC decided to invest the Noble Prize money in post-graduate education for young scientists. Recently the IPCC has been  named the recipient of Dickinson College’s Rose-Walters Prize whose prize money will also be put towards the scholarship programme.

-ENDS-

For more information, please contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
IPCC scholarship programme, Email: ipcc-sp@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, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors 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 II, 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 estimating emissions and removals of greenhouse gases.

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.

***

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Remarks by IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee during the opening of ICOMOS / IPCC / UNESCO Co-Sponsored meeting
6 December 2021

Your Excellencies, distinguished friends and colleagues, 

We are very happy to be working together on this with UNESCO and ICOMOS.

As Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC – I’m honoured and pleased to welcome you to this unique gathering. For the first time in IPCC’s history, we are bringing together, in one forum, the scientists and experts from the culture and heritage community and those working on climate change science. 

Not only is this a historical meeting but it is a historical opportunity to explore and deepen our collective knowledge and understanding of how climate change impacts culture and heritage, and how these can enlighten our pathways to possible solutions in tackling climate change.

Our culture and heritage are windows into millennia of human experience from which we can draw and use them to shape our strategies to adapt and to make our communities more resilient to climate change risks and challenges. Are we capable of projecting from our collective past into our shared future? I believe yes, we are. I believe this is not only possible, but it is imperative that we do so. 

For decades now, we have known that the world is warming. Our most recent report is the contribution of the Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report, published this summer. It laid out the most up-to-date physical science knowledge about climate change. The report clearly shows that recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid, and intensifying, affecting every part of the world. Some of these changes are unprecedented in thousands of years.

It is indisputable that human activities are causing climate change. There are indelible human fingerprints on the changes to our climate. Compared to the pre-industrial era, our planet is already 1.1°C warmer. Human influence is making extreme climate events, including heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and droughts, more frequent and severe.

Climate change is already affecting every region on Earth, in multiple ways. The changes we’re experiencing today will increase with further warming.

It is critical to recognise that there is no going back from some changes in the climate system. However, some of these changes could be slowed and others could be stopped by limiting warming.

And the science is very clear on that. Unless there are immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be pushed beyond our reach. 

But it is not just about temperature. Climate change is bringing multiple different changes in different regions, such as more intense rainfall and associated flooding, as well as more intense drought in many regions.

Some of these changes in our climate system are particularly relevant to the theme of this gathering and they present a clear and imminent threat to our culture and heritage.

For example, the continued sea-level rise will have irreversible and dire impacts on people living in the small Island States, such as Kiribati and Tuvalu or in the Arctic. This means loss of human habitat, loss of territory and livelihoods, posing complex and difficult existential questions not only for these societies but equally so for the entire international community.

Consequently, this also means the loss of cultural identity, material and non-material traditions and the sense of belonging for these communities. Beyond these themes, there are additional layers of interlinked and complex social, economic, legal, human mobility and other questions that warrant the full and undivided attention of policymakers.

We also must recognize the threats posed by storm-driven coastal erosion, temperature changes, rising sea levels and floods to the world’s cultural heritage sites. Most of these sites are bedrocks and sources of vitally important indigenous knowledge. Their physical loss is not only an irreparable loss to our collective history and our science. As these heritage sites perish, they can leave an unbridgeable chasm in our ability to pass on indigenous and local knowledge from one generation to the next one.

One should not forget the intangible, yet so profoundly valued experiences of our cultural and natural heritage – the aesthetic and spiritual enrichment they offer to us, the role they play in societies and cultural identities, in our recreation and knowledge, and how these subtle memories and experiences shape our physical and mental health.

Distinguished friends and colleagues,

I would like to stress here that IPCC assessment reports increasingly acknowledge the need for climate science to explore and tap into all areas and forms of knowledge. This is a critical component if we as IPCC are to present comprehensive and balanced assessments of the causes, impacts and responses to climate change. 

I urge you to approach this gathering with ambition and vision. This co-sponsored meeting will allow us to explore the importance of cultural knowledge and heritage in understanding and responding to the climate change challenge. And we are only at the start. I hope this meeting will help generate more research across diverse disciplines and raise awareness among policymakers about cultural and natural heritage and climate change and possible models of adaptation and mitigation. 

Culture and heritage are vitally important aspects of our lives and resources influencing how our communities and societies adapt to climate change. This meeting is convened just before the approval session of the IPCC’s Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report. This report will provide important information that will help inform the growing global debate on impacts and adaptation to climate change – especially given the strong focus on this issue that emerged at the COP26 in Glasgow.

I wish you a successful and productive meeting.

Thank you for your attention.

ENDS

GENEVA, Dec 1 – Bloomberg Businessweek named today Hoesung Lee, the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the 2021 Bloomberg 50, its annual list of innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders who have changed the global business landscape over the past year. The list will be published in the December 6 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek.

An unranked list, the Bloomberg 50 represents the most influential thought leaders in business, finance, politics, entertainment, science and technology whose 2021 accomplishments were particularly noteworthy.

ENDS

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, experts  volunteer their time as IPCC authors 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 II, 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 estimating emissions and removals of greenhouse gases.

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.

GENEVA, Nov 29 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has distributed the Final Draft of the Working Group III contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) to governments. The final draft of the Summary for Policymakers has also been distributed for further review by governments. This is one of the final stages of preparations before IPCC member countries will consider this report in a plenary next year.

“Our scientists have worked tirelessly to deliver this report thorough a robust assessment of scientific evidence. The report will inform policymakers world-wide about pathways to solutions and opportunities available to us to tackle climate change,” said Jim Skea, Co-Chair of Working Group III.

The review of the Summary for Policymakers, running to 30 January 2022, provides governments with the opportunity to check whether the draft Summary for Policymakers reflects the underlying evidence laid out in the Working Group III report. Working Group III is responsible for assessing the mitigation of climate change – responses and solutions to the threat of dangerous climate change by reducing emissions and enhancing sinks of the greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming.

During the government review of the Summary for Policymakers, Working Group III is planning a series of webinars on different aspects of the report with government representatives to inform them as they prepare their written comments.  This will also help authors identify issues and receive informal feedback from governments. Authors will present key concepts of the report and how they are treated in the Summary for Policymakers, including in figures, and how the summarised elements are grounded in the detailed underlying assessment.

The Working Group III report is the third instalment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, which will be completed in 2022. In August, the IPCC released the approved Working Group I report which assessed the physical science, showing that climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying. The Working Group II report, which looks at climate impacts and adaptation, will be considered at an approval session in early 2022, prior to the consideration of the Working Group III report.

“These interactive webinars will be a critical support activity during the Summary for Policymakers review process, allowing an informal exchange between governments and our authors. This will ensure clarity and will strengthen the text prior to the approval session” said Priyadarshi Shukla, Co-Chair of Working Group III.

The authors of the Working Group III report have already addressed more than 16,000 comments provided by expert reviewers of the report’s First-Order Draft. In the subsequent Second-Order Draft stage they went through over 51,000 additional comments from expert reviewers and 41 governments.

The government approval session for the Working Group III report is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2022.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

IPCC Working Group III Technical Support Unit
Sigourney Luz (Communications Manager), e-mail: s.luz@ipcc-wg3.ac.uk

IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516, 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, experts  volunteer their time as IPCC authors 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 II, 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 estimating emissions and removals of greenhouse gases.

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 most recent, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014 and provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement.

The IPCC also publishes special reports on more specific issues between assessment reports.

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 Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021.

More information about the Working Group III report, including its agreed outline, can be found here.

The Working Group II contribution is scheduled to be finalized in the first quarter of 2022.

The concluding Synthesis Report is due later in 2022.

The IPCC has published three special reports in this assessment cycle.

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.

TheSpecial Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate was released in September 2019.

In May 2019 the IPCC released the2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

For more information please visit http://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 the IPCC YouTube channel.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been named the recipient of Dickinson College’s Rose-Walters Prize. Welcoming the announcement at United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow, the IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee said: 

“As the Chair of the IPCC, I’m very proud and happy to announce to you and our dear audience – both in this Science Pavilion and online – that the IPCC is the recipient of The Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College.

The Rose-Walters Prize honours the IPCC’s work of producing and communicating scientific knowledge that is the foundation of informed and effective action on climate change.

I’m particularly happy to be able to make this announcement on behalf of the IPCC during the COP26 in Glasgow.

The Rose-Walters Prize, which comes with the US$100,000 purse, is given annually to an individual or organization that makes a defining difference to advance responsible action on behalf of the planet, its resources and people.

The IPCC plans to use the prize money to further fund the IPCC Scholarship Programme, which provides scholarships for Ph.D. students from developing countries. This will allow them to conduct research that advances understanding of climate change risks and response strategies.”

A delegation from the IPCC will accept the award at Dickinson college in May 2022.

-ENDS-

For more information:

IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516, 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, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors 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 II, 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 estimating emissions and removals of greenhouse gases.

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.

***

It is with great sadness that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) learnt of the death of former IPCC author Dr Geert Jan van Oldenborgh. Geert Jan passed away on 12 October 2021 after an 8-year battle with multiple myeloma, an incurable form of cancer.

He was a Lead Author on chapter 11 of IPCC’s Working Group I contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report. Chapter 11 is on Near-Term Climate Change Projections and Predictability.

Geert Jan was known as one of the founders of a relatively new field of climate science called climate attribution. Climate attribution is the relationship between extreme weather and climate change. He was a co-founder and co-leader of the World Weather Attribution, an initiative that conducts real-time attribution analysis of extreme weather events around the world.  All this work is a key contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report.

He was a world renown scientist with various awards to his name. TIME magazine named him as one if its 100 most influential people for 2021, together with another IPCC author Friederike Otto. In September the European Meteorological Society presented him with their Technological Achievement Award. In April 2021 he was awarded the Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion in recognition of his contribution to climate science. He was a visiting professor at the University of Oxford.

Geert Jan studied theoretical physics in Leiden and in the late 1980s got his doctorate in particle physics from the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics. He worked for the Dutch national weather service since 1996 when he joined as a post-doc. His initial work was centred around the dynamics and predictability of El Niño and the warming of the sea water in the Eastern Pacific.

He was 59 years old. He is survived by his wife Mandy and 3 sons.

Picture courtesy of KNMI

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

IPCC/SBSTA special event on the Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report at COP26.
Glasgow, 04 November 2021

Thank you Mister Chair,

Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,

I’m very pleased to address you this morning as Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC.

The talks at this landmark conference in Glasgow are now underway. These talks are informed by science and findings of IPCC reports.

Over the past several years, IPCC has delivered several critically important contributions: Global Warming of 1.5C, Climate Change and Land, Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, to mention a few.

Most recent is the contribution of the Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report, published this summer.

Here, I would like to recognize that this document – which clearly laid out for the policymakers worldwide the most up-to-date physical science basis for the understanding of the climate system and climate change – is dedicated to our late friend and colleague Sir John Houghton.

From 1988 to 2002 John was the chair and co-chair of the IPCC Working Group I, during the first three assessment reports. In recognition of these and other reports, in 2007, IPCC shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. 

This brings me to this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics. Over 30 years later, modelling the Earth’s climate and the work of scientists who have contributed so much to our understanding of climate change have been recognized. Two of the three this year’s laurates –  Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann – are IPCC authors. We congratulate Syukuro and Klaus for their great achievement!

The report we released in August is the first part of the Sixth Assessment Report. The second and third instalments are scheduled for release in February and March next year. Respectively, these contributions will provide us with the latest scientific knowledge about the impacts of climate change, adaptation, and mitigation. By September 2022 we will also bring together all these lines of research and evidence in the Synthesis Report, integrating our understanding of climate change and policy response.

The Working Group I contribution has been a significant achievement produced under very challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on the research of thousands of scientists worldwide and more than 14,000 scientific studies, a team of over 230 authors from 65 countries have worked together for over three years to deliver this report.

As with every IPCC report, the latest contribution underwent expert and government review, which is critical to deliver a robust, rigorous, exhaustive and objective assessment. We thank the experts and governments for their comments throughout this process. In total, the authors responded to more than 78,000 comments.

The report provides a reality check, grounded in new findings on the physical state of climate change. It reflects the magnitude of the collective challenge for all nations on this planet.

Allow me to stress the key findings:

For decades, we have known that the world is warming. Recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid, and intensifying, sparing no part of the world. They are unprecedented in thousands of years.

It is indisputable that human activities are causing climate change. Human influence is making extreme climate events, including heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and droughts, more frequent and severe.

Climate change is already affecting every region on Earth, in multiple ways. The changes we experience will increase with further warming.

There is no going back from some changes in the climate system. However, some of these changes could be slowed and others could be stopped by limiting warming.

Unless there are immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5°C and even 2°C will be pushed beyond our reach.

To limit global warming, strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in CO2, methane, and other greenhouse gases are necessary. This would not only reduce the consequences of climate change but also improve air quality.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Delegates,

Since our previous Assessment Report in 2013, there have been major advances in science globally. They range from observations, understanding of processes in the climate system, global and regional modelling to insights into our past and future climates. This science, our knowledge of current trends and our understanding of future changes are also part of solutions. It is critical they are considered in adaptation strategies and adaptation funding, and mitigation measures.

Today, we have a much more precise and clearer picture of how the climate system works. It is essential that this knowledge is embraced as integral to the ongoing talks about our future actions as we collectively prepare for more frequent, more intense, new types of extremes and climate conditions.

I wish you a successful conference.

Thank you for your attention.

ENDS

04 November 2021

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Keynote address by the IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee at the ceremonial opening of COP26 Glasgow, 31 October 2021

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour for me to address you on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change – IPCC – at the opening of the  COP26.

First, our sincere thanks to the UNFCCC Secretariat and the UK government for the successful preparation of this landmark conference. We are equally grateful to the Scottish government and the City of Glasgow for their warm welcome and hospitality.

I consider it a privilege to speak about climate change science here in Scotland, the country of rich scientific life and home to giants such as Alexander Fleming, Mary Somerville, and of course Adam Smith, the father of economics, just to name a few. Today’s scientific knowledge and its achievements stand also on their shoulders.

Prior to this conference, the IPCC released in August the first part of its ongoing Sixth Assessment Report. It clearly laid out for the policymakers and stakeholders the most up-to-date physical science basis for the understanding of the climate system and climate change.

Make no mistake – it is a sobering read. It reflects the magnitude of the collective challenge for all nations on this planet. Science shows that changes in the climate are widespread, rapid and becoming more intense and affecting every part of the world.

Since our previous Assessment Report in 2013, there have been major advances in science globally. Today, we have a much more precise and clearer picture of how the climate system works. We understand better what has changed in the past, what is changing now and what can be the changes in our future climate and why they matter for every region.

It is now unequivocal that human influence is causing climate change, making extreme events more frequent and more severe. Some recent hot extremes such as heat waves in the last ten years would have been extremely unlikely to occur without human influence on the climate system. Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during this century unless immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, especially of carbon dioxide and methane, occur in the nearest future.

We also bring a wealth of understanding about climate change at the regional level which is critically relevant for shaping government policies.

I encourage everyone to seize the moment, seize the opportunity this gathering offers. We, the scientific community,  are ready to work with you on the understanding of scientific evidence of climate change, its impacts and adaptions and how these translate into realities of climate action.

We share one atmosphere, one climate system. It knows no borders. The true measure of effectiveness of our collective efforts will be the state of its condition. And science will attest to that.

Thank you.

GENEVA, Oct 26 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be taking part in the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) organised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November 2021, with a broad programme of events.  

On 4 November, IPCC experts will present the findings of the most recent Working Group I report entitled Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis (released on 9 August) during a special event organised together with UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). This three-hour-long event is scheduled to begin at 10.30 am GMT.

Details on how to follow livestreams of this and other events listed in this advisory will be shared closer to the time.

On 1 and 2 November, the IPCC experts will be taking part and presenting the findings of the Working Group I report in the so-called Second meeting of the Structured Expert Dialogue, a platform of the COP where discussions on scientific knowledge and evidence-based climate policy formulations take place. In line with the COP request to consider information as it becomes available, the discussions will be centred around IPCC’s latest report, the Fourth Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance Flows and other recently published reports by international organizations.

Earth Information Day at COP26 is on 3 November and IPCC will present under the “Updates on Earth observation of the climate system and climate change” theme.

On 9 November, the IPCC will hold a side event entitled IPCC scientific assessments in a pandemic world starting at 10.00 am GMT.

For the duration of the conference, the IPCC, the World Meteorological Organization and the UK Met Office supported by the UK COP26 Presidency, are jointly hosting the COP26 Science Pavilion. IPCC events at the Pavilion will mainly showcase the latest scientific findings about global warming and climate change specific to the world’s regions. Additional events will be organized with partners, such as the Chilean foundation Filantropía Cortés Solari, whose support is gratefully acknowledged.  Another partner is the Union of Economic and Social Councils of Similar Institutions of Africa (UCESA) which is a regional organization that brings together 19 economic and social councils on the African continent. More details about IPCC events at the COP26 Science Pavillion can be found here : https://apps.ipcc.ch/outreach/viewevent.php?e=1 .

To request an interview with the IPCC Chair, Vice-Chairs, Co-Chairs or other IPCC authors present at COP26 please email ipcc-media@wmo.int.

For more information contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516 or 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 II, 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 estimating emissions and removals of greenhouse gases.

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 Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment ReportClimate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021.

The Working Group II and III contributions are expected to be finalized in February and March 2022 respectively. The concluding Synthesis Report is due in 2022.

The IPCC has published three special reports in this assessment cycle.

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 the2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

For more information please visit http://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 the IPCC YouTube channel.

ENDS

GENEVA, Oct 5 – Welcoming today’s announcement of the three laureates receiving the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics – Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi for research that advances understanding of complex physical systems such as Earth’s changing climate, the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Hoesung Lee said:

“We at IPCC congratulate the laureates of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics. As public awareness of climate change grows, it is encouraging to see the Nobel Physics Prize recognizing the work of scientists who have contributed so much to our understanding of climate change, including two IPCC authors –  Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann”.

Both authors contributed to the IPCC’s First Assessment report in 1990, and Third Assessment Report in 2001, while Hasselmann also contributed to the Second Assessment Report in 1995. The IPCC as an institution shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore. The IPCC released the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report in August this year, with the remaining three parts due in 2022.

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For more information, please contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516, 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 II, 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 estimating emissions and removals of greenhouse gases.

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.

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