GENEVA, Jan 3 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has opened registration for the Government and Expert Review of the Draft of the Summary for Policymakers and longer report of the Sixth Assessment Synthesis Report.
As of today, interested experts can register for participation in the review here: https://apps.ipcc.ch/comments/ar6syr/fod/register.php. The Government and Expert Review of the Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report will take place from 10 January to 20 March 2022, 23:59 (GMT+1).
Registration of experts closes on 13 March 2022, 23:59 (GMT+1), one week before the end of the review.
The Synthesis Report is the final product of the Sixth Assessment Report to be approved in September 2022. It synthesises and integrates the findings of all three Working Group contributions to the Sixth Assessment Report and the special reports that have been produced in this cycle.
“The Synthesis Report will bring together all the findings and work of the IPCC during the entire Sixth Assessment Cycle. This is why the review and scrutiny by both governments and experts is such a crucial and critical part of the process. The review will further firm up policy relevance, the scientific integrity and robustness of this closing chapter of the Sixth Assessment Cycle,” said Hoesung Lee, the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In August 2021, the IPCC released the approved Working Group I report which assessed the state of physical science, showing that climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying. The second and third instalments from Working Group II and III are scheduled to be released at the end of February and early April respectively in 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought its challenges with the Synthesis Report Core Writing Team having to work entirely virtually to produce this draft.
“We have a dedicated and hardworking Core Writing Team that has developed a solid and strong Draft of the Synthesis Report that experts and governments can comment on. After the review, the Core Writing Team will continue to work hard and address the comments received, despite the challenging circumstances of the pandemic, to prepare the revised Draft ready for the Final Government Distribution,” said Hoesung Lee.
More than 50 scientists and experts worldwide have dedicated their time and contributed their knowledge and expertise to the Draft of the Synthesis Report..
For experts to register for the review, a self-declaration of expertise is required. Once the registration is complete, and before accessing the draft, reviewers agree to the terms of the review, including the confidentiality of the draft and review materials, which are provided solely for the purpose of the review. The drafts may not be cited, quoted or distributed.
The government and expert review is a formal component of the Synthesis Report development process. The drafts submitted for review, the review comments, and the subsequent responses by the authors will become publicly available once the report is published. In line with IPCC practice, review comments are not anonymous.
ENDS
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, 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 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 Report Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021.
More information about the Working Group II report, including its agreed outline, can be found here. The Working Group II contribution is scheduled for release in late February 2022.
The Working Group III contribution is expected to be finalized in early April 2022.
The concluding Synthesis Report is due in September 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 the 2019 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 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.