The first meeting of the Core Writing Team (CWT-1) was held virtually from 25 to 29 January 2021. It included the involvement of the CWT members — 30 authors from 19 countries, the IPCC Vice-Chairs, Working Group Co-Chairs, the IPCC Secretary and the heads of the Working Group TSUs, as well as the Scientific Steering Committee of the SYR (SYR SSC) who provided guidance to the CWT throughout the meeting. The Working Group Technical Support Units and the IPCC Secretariat provided invaluable support to the meeting.
CWT-1 was split in two groups in order to allow for the full, productive and inclusive participation of all regardless of their time zones. The first day of the meeting was dedicated to the familiarization with underlying material from the Working Group contributions to AR6 and the Special Reports produced during the AR6 cycle. On the second and third days the Core Writing Team split into section meetings, where the narrative structure, key messages and cross section topics were discussed. On the fourth day, the two groups came together to merge their discussions and produce the deliverables. On last day the deliverables were discussed in the closing plenaries, and next steps until delivery of the SYR pre-draft were outlined.
In spite of the difficult virtual circumstances under which CWT-1 was operated, thanks to the tireless and outstanding work of all those involved, CWT-1 was able to produce the outcomes expected from the meeting including a narrative structure for the SYR sections, fully based on the agreed topic headings and the list of indicative bullets agreed by the 52nd Session of the IPCC; identification of cross section topics; an internal workplan for the SYR for delivery of the SYR pre-draft and until CWT-2; and a compendium of very preliminary potential key messages for each section of the SYR.