CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, March 22 – The authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Land will meet in Christchurch, New Zealand from 26 to 30 March 2018. About 100 experts from 52 countries will be meeting to advance work on the first draft of the report, whose full title is 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.
The report will explore the interactions between land surfaces and the climate system, as well as the interlinkages between greenhouse gases and desertification, land degradation, and food security. It will also assess risk management and decision-making in relation to sustainable land management and sustainable development. The full outline is available here.
IPCC reports are produced through a process of repeated drafting and review. The first order draft of the report will be available for expert review between 11June and 5 August 2018. The authors will meet again between 3-7 September 2018 to work on a second draft, which will be open for review by governments and experts towards the end of the year. The report will be finalized in August 2019.
In addition to the Lead Author Meeting, the IPCC will host a press briefing on 26 March at 8.15AM at The Piano Event Centre, 156 Armagh Street, Christchurch. Interested journalists should register for the event by contacting Sylvia Nissen by email at sylvia.nissen@canterbury.ac.nz or directly by phone on +64 21 161 5550.
IPCC Vice-Chair Youba Sokona, Working Group III Co-Chair Jim Skea, and authors of the Special Report will also take part in a panel discussion on 28 March at 7PM at the Piano Event Centre. For more information, contact Bronwyn Hayward at bronwyn.hayward@canterbury.ac.nz.
We gratefully acknowledge the New Zealand Ministries for the Environment Manatū Mō Te Taiao, of Foreign Affairs and Trade and for Primary Industries Manatū Ahu Matua, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, Te Ngāi Tū Ahuriri Rūnanga Inc, Christchurch City Council, the University of Canterbury and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre for their kind support in hosting this meeting.
The full list of authors is available here.
For more information and interviews contact:
University of Canterbury: sylvia.nissen@canterbury.ac.nz; bronwyn.hayward@canterbury.ac.nz
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
IPCC Working Group III: m.ferrat@ipcc-wg3.ac.uk; tsu@ipcc-wg3.ac.uk
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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. It has 195 member states.
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014. The next comprehensive assessment is due to be completed in 2022. The IPCC also publishes special reports on more specific issues between assessment reports. In addition to the Special Report on Climate Change and Land, in this assessment cycle the IPCC is preparing the following Special Reports:
- Global Warming of 1.5 °C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C 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, to be finalized in early October 2018;
- Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, to be finalized in September 2019; and
The IPCC also prepares methodologies to enable countries to report their emissions and removals of greenhouse gases. It is currently updating the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, for completion in May 2019.
The Special Report on Climate Change and Land is being prepared under the joint scientific leadership of all three IPCC working groups: Working Group I (the physical science basis), Working Group II (impacts, adaptation and vulnerability), and Working Group III (mitigation of climate change), who are supported by the Technical Support Unit of Working Group III.
For more information, including links to the IPCC reports, go to: www.ipcc.ch