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.
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