Disclaimer: The approved Summary for Policymakers and adopted Longer Report remain subject to final copy editing and layout.
The Synthesis Report is based on the content of the three Working Groups Assessment Reports: WGI – The Physical Science Basis, WGII – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, WGIII – Mitigation of Climate Change, and the three Special Reports: Global Warming of 1.5°C, Climate Change and Land, The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.
The Core Writing Team (CWT) is the group of authors preparing the Synthesis Report. The list of the Core Writing Team members and Review Editors can be found here.
The IPCC Bureau at its 58th Session in May 2020 selected the members of Core Writing Team from the author teams of the three IPCC Working Group and the three Special Reports, reflecting the balance in geographical distribution, gender, and representative of a range of expertise.
The CWT also includes the Chair, the IPCC Vice-Chairs, the Working Group Co-Chairs, the heads of the Working Group and Synthesis Report Technical Support Units, and the Secretary of the IPCC.
Core Writing Team meetings
The Panel at its 41st Session held in Nairobi, Kenya from 24 to 27 February 2015 agreed that it would continue to prepare comprehensive assessment reports every five to seven years and that the scoping of the Synthesis Report – SYR – as well as attention to cross-cutting issues should start at an early stage (IPCC-XLI/4). Consistent with decision IPCC/XLI-4, a preliminary Scoping meeting for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Synthesis Report (SYR) was held during the AR6 Scoping Meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 1 to 5 May 2017. The Panel at its 46th Session held from 6 to 10 September 2017 in Montreal, Canada, took note of document IPCC-XLVI/Doc.6 which was produced during the scoping meeting.
A dedicated Scoping meeting for the AR6 Synthesis Report was held in Singapore from 21 to 23 October 2019, the outcome of which is included in the AR6 SYR Scoping document IPCC-LII/Doc.10 submitted to the 52nd session of the Panel. It is explained in more detail in the information document IPCC-LII/INF.12.
The Panel at its 52nd Session held in Paris, France from 24 to 28 February 2020 agreed to the outline of the AR6 SYR as is contained in Annex 1 to Decision IPCC-LII-10.
The Synthesis Report Outline
The SYR outline agreed at the 52nd Panel Session of the IPCC consists of an introduction and three main sections arranged by timeframes. The first section, ‘Current Status and Trends’, covers the historical and present period. The second section, ‘Long-term Climate and Development Futures’, addresses projected futures up to 2100 and beyond. The final section is ‘Near-term Responses in a Changing Climate’, considers current international policy timeframes, and the time interval between now and 2030-2040.
This structure, substantially different to what was adopted for AR5 SYR, enables a holistic framing that integrates across the Working Groups, better enabling the SYR to cover different aspects of climate change.
Quick links
Approved outlines
Authors and Review editors