24 February 2025, Hangzhou, China
Check Against Delivery
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished delegates, excellencies, dear hosts,
As Chair of the IPCC – allow me first to welcome government delegations, representatives of observer organizations, and IPCC Bureau members attending the Panel’s 62nd Plenary Session.
I also take this opportunity to welcome the staff of the IPCC Secretariat and the Technical Support Units as well as media representatives joining us for the opening ceremony.
I am pleased to greet our dear colleagues and friends. We are honoured that China’s Special Envoy for Climate Change Liu Zhenmin, Administrator of the China Meteorological Administration Chen Zhenlin and Li Yanyi, Vice Governor from Zhejiang Province, will address our opening ceremony this morning.
We will also see recorded video messages from the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Inger Andersen, and the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Simon Stiell. I am particularly delighted that our former Vice-Chair and the current Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation Ko Barret is with us for the duration of this plenary.
I also wish to express our special gratitude to the government of China, the authorities of the Zhejiang province and the City of Hangzhou for their warm welcome, exceptional setting and exemplary support and facilitation of this critically important Panel session. We are genuinely impressed by the outstanding organisation of this Plenary. Our hosts have spared no effort to ensure the best possible working environment and conditions for the Panel to deliver in an efficient and timely manner the ambitious programme of work planned for this session.
Since the start of this seventh assessment cycle just 18 months ago, we have made important and steady progress. Six months ago, the Panel gave the green light to the outlines of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, and the Methodology Report on Short-Lived Climate Forcers, opening up the process for nominating and selecting authors. With selected authors on board, the first Lead Author Meetings for both reports will take place next month.
Now turning to the impacts of IPCC’s work, it is evident that our timely, policy-relevant and actionable assessment reports have never been more pertinent. Our relevance for policymakers was manifestly reaffirmed and acknowledged in the key decisions of COP29 in Baku.
Specifically – in decisions on the new collective quantified goal on climate finance and UAE Dialogue on the implementation of the Global Stocktake, there were prominent references to the findings from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
The Decision on the Global Goal on Adaptation welcomed IPCC’s own decision to revise and update the 1994 Technical Guidelines for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations and invited the IPCC to organise a special event at the next session of Subsidiary Bodies in June this year.
Lastly, I would like to highlight the COP29 decision on Research and Systematic Observation which noted with appreciation, and welcomed, the statements delivered by the IPCC and welcomed the ongoing work of the IPCC in the seventh assessment cycle.
This week we have a rich and demanding agenda to cover. It is a pivotal session for the cycle, and we will be focused on the science. We will be agreeing outlines of the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report. The Bureau and selected scientists who met at the Scoping Meeting for the Seventh Assessment Report in Kuala Lumpur in December have done their utmost to bring scientifically strong and well-structured drafts to this plenary.
We will also consider the draft outline of the Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage, a report scheduled for release in 2027.
I’d like to finish by acknowledging the strong and steady support that IPCC member countries have demonstrated in sustaining every aspect of our work. Both support for the science that powers our assessments and generous voluntary contributions. Government support ensures the scientific integrity and continuity of the IPCC as the most authoritative and policy-relevant voice on climate science globally.
Thank you.