IPCC decides on new work plan at 60th plenary session
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In the city of Istanbul, Turkey, the Member States of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) met during the 60th Plenary Session to discuss and define the way forward for the seventh climate assessment cycle. This cycle, which had begun with the election of the new IPCC Bureaus and Task Force at the end of July 2023, was addressed at this meeting, which ran from January 16 to 19 of this year.
During those four days, delegates from the 195 member governments discussed and decided on the work program, including the number and scope of scientific reports that the IPCC would deliver in this cycle. Notably, at the 43rd Session in April 2016, it was agreed that a special report on climate change and cities would be produced in this cycle, and at the 49th Session in May 2019, it was decided that the seventh cycle would deliver a methodological report on short-lived climate agents.
In the framework of the 60th Plenary Session, Edwin Castellanos, representative of Guatemala and Director of Science at the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), emphasized three crucial points during his intervention at the event. First, he highlighted that the full reports generated by the IPCC were written exclusively in English; this practice, according to Castellanos, resulted in crucial information not effectively reaching decision-makers in Latin American countries, depriving them of essential data to address the climate crisis.
Second, Castellanos highlighted the limitation of the IPCC reports in relying on published literature. This approach, while valid in more developed scientific contexts, left less scientifically developed but highly vulnerable countries, such as Central America, underrepresented in the reports. Castellanos argued that these countries needed more information to make informed and effective decisions in the fight against climate change.
Finally, the third point highlighted by Castellanos was the need to include indigenous peoples more formally in the reporting process. He proposed the preparation of a special report focused on the knowledge of indigenous and aboriginal peoples, recognizing the importance of their perspectives and experiences in the formulation of adaptation and mitigation strategies.
During the opening ceremony, IPCC member governments and observer organizations were addressed by IPCC Chairman Jim Skea; Turkey's Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, Mehmet Özhaseki; Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Inger Andersen; Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, Celeste Saulo; and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Simon Stiell.
The IPCC, a UN body to assess the science related to climate change, was established in 1988 to provide political leaders with regular scientific assessments of climate change, its implications, and risks. With 195 member states, the IPCC seeks to provide scientific information for climate policy development.
The IPCC's most recent report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was completed in March 2023 and provides key scientific information for international climate change negotiations.
For more information on the IPCC's work and previous reports, visit www.ipcc.ch.
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