GENEVA, Feb 03 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has selected 97 experts from 56 countries to participate in preparing the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities as Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors and Review Editors.
This marks the beginning of the drafting process for this Special Report, which will be the first report delivered by the IPCC in the seventh assessment cycle. Its release is scheduled for March 2027. Selected authors and review editors will work on developing the report based on the outline agreed by the Panel during its 61st Session held in Sofia, Bulgaria from 27 July to 2 August 2024.
The Special Report on Climate Change and Cities will provide a timely assessment of the latest science related to climate change and cities, including climate impacts and risks, as well as adaptation and mitigation solutions that can be taken to minimize them. Today, more than half of the world’s population is already living in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to further increase by 2050.
“The IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities is a call to action for all of us to harness the full potential of our cities in tackling climate change, ensuring that they are resilient, inclusive and sustainable for generations to come. We look forward to the insights that our chosen experts will bring to develop a robust and actionable report,” said Winston Chow, Co-Chair of Working Group II.
The Bureau Members of all three IPCC Working Groups carefully considered all nominations and developed the final list of authors and review editors. The selection was undertaken according to the Principles Governing IPCC Work, which has considered the required scientific, technical and socio-economic expertise, geographical and gender balance, and the inclusion of experts with and without previous IPCC experience.
“The selection of the authors for this Special Report is an important step in its production, a leap from the Panel’s decision nine years ago to include it in the IPCC’s seventh assessment cycle.
We are inspired by the strong support from the scientific community worldwide wanting to contribute to this IPCC Special Report, as evidenced by the large number of nominations for Lead Authors and Review Editors, and also by the growing body of scientific literature and interest surrounding climate change and cities,” said Joy Pereira, Co-Chair of Working Group III.
The 97 experts that will undertake the assessment were selected from 1,201 nominations submitted by IPCC’s national focal points and observer organizations. Of the selected experts, 53 per cent are women and 54.6 per cent come from developing countries and economies in transition. Nearly a third are new to the IPCC process.
The overall number of nominations confirms a robust and growing interest of the global scientific community in support for the IPCC and its work. Interested experts can contribute as an Expert Reviewer during the review of this Special Report. Another call will be launched for experts to register for the Expert Review of the First Order Draft of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities that will take place in the second half of 2025.
Click here for the detailed list of the members of the author team: https://apps.ipcc.ch/report/authors/
For more information, please 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
What is 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 measuring emissions and removals.
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 Seventh Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 5 to 7 years. The IPCC is currently in its seventh assessment cycle, which formally began in July 2023 with the elections of the new IPCC and Taskforce Bureaus at the IPCC’s Plenary Session in Nairobi.
IPCC’s latest report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was completed in March 2023 with the release of its Synthesis Report, which provides direct scientific input to the first global stocktake process under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at COP28 in Dubai.
The Sixth Assessment Report comprises three Working Group contributions and a Synthesis Report. The Working Group I contribution Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021. The Working Group II contribution, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was released on 28 February 2022. The Working Group III contribution, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, was released on 4 April 2022 and the Synthesis Report on 20 March 2023. The Synthesis Report to the Sixth Assessment Report, distills and integrates the findings of the three Working Group assessments as well as the three Special Reports released in 2018 and 2019.
The special reports were on Global Warming of 1.5°C (October 2018.), Climate Change and Land (August 2019) and, the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate (September 2019).
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.
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