UNESCO : IPCC meets in Paris to discuss major 2022 climate change report, other business

Gilles Roman Admin Date d'inscription : 04/05/2015

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

will consider the outline of the Synthesis Report

for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6 SYR)

on 24-28 February 2020

during its 52nd Session to be hosted by the

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in Paris, France.

The Synthesis Report, due to be released in the first part of 2022, will present the latest state of climate knowledge by drawing on information from the other reports the IPCC is preparing in the current assessment cycle. It will serve as the basis for international negotiations and will be ready in time for the first global stocktake under the Paris Agreement in 2023.

A series of events will take place on the morning of 24 February, to which media are invited.

“The Synthesis Report will integrate all the information the IPCC is preparing in its current special and assessment reports to provide policymakers with the most up-to-date scientific information relevant to climate change,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.

Following the Opening Ceremony of the 52nd Session, UNESCO will host a panel discussion with the IPCC, “Planet in Peril: Transforming the Course of Climate Action”. The discussion will bring together eminent scientists, climate experts, youth leaders and representatives of indigenous peoples to discuss and share views on the ways and means to raise ambition for more effective climate action and the role and contributions of science and knowledge.

“Science is key in tackling the climate crisis and other sustainability challenges,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “The work of the IPCC is of vital importance here and UNESCO, as the host of IPCC-52, is determined to draw on its scientific expertise, and on the work and experience of its biosphere reserves, natural heritage sites and education programmes, in leading the transformation we need for people and the planet.”

After the panel discussion, the IPCC Session will resume in closed session to consider the Synthesis Report outline, to elect a member of the Bureau of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, to launch the regular review of IPCC procedures, and transact other business.

During the IPCC Session, UNESCO and the Government of France are expected to sign an agreement bringing the Office for Climate Education under the auspices of UNESCO.

Media Briefing Before the Opening Ceremony, Mr Hoesung Lee, IPCC Chair, UNESCO Director-General Ms Audrey Azoulay, and Mr Abdalah Mokssit, Secretary of the IPCC, will brief media on Monday 24 February at 08:45-09:15 CET, at UNESCO headquarters, 7 place de Fontenoy, Paris (entrance 125 avenue Suffren).

The agenda and supporting documents for the 52nd Session can be found here.

Opening Ceremony

The 52nd Session of the IPCC will open at 10:00 CET on Monday 24 February at UNESCO headquarters.

The Opening Ceremony will be addressed by:

Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO,

Ms Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
Mr Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO),
Mr Florin Vladu, Manager, Adaptation Programme, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
Mr Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC,
Ms Élisabeth Borne, Minister for the Ecological and Solidarity Transition of France.

They will be followed by a keynote speech from Mr José Cassandra, President of the Regional Government of Principe Autonomous Region - Principe Island, São Tomé e Príncipe, and an artistic performance.

Details of the UNESCO-IPCC panel discussion following the IPCC Opening Ceremony can be found here. [What is this in reference to?; g.papagiannis]

How to Register

Besides the media briefing [and media opportunity], the Opening Ceremony and the UNESCO-IPCC panel discussion are open to the media. Media registration for these sessions will be handled by UNESCO. Please contact Clare O’Hagan, c.o-hagan@unesco.org, +33 1 45 68 17 29, sending a copy of a press credential along with your request for accreditation.

There will be limited possibilities for interview. Please contact the IPCC with requests.

For more information contact:

IPCC Press Office: Melissa Walsh, ipcc-media@wmo.int

[ltr]UNESCO Press Office: Lucia Iglesias, l.iglesias@unesco.org, +33 1 45 68 17 02[/ltr]

[ltr]Office for Climate Education Press Contact: Natalie Nicetto, natalie.nicetto@oce.global [/ltr]

[ltr]Notes for Editors [/ltr]

[ltr]About the IPCC [/ltr]

[ltr]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 policymakers with regular scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and potential future risks, and to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. It has 195 member states. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. [/ltr]

[ltr]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. [/ltr]

[ltr]The IPCC assesses the thousands of scientific papers published each year to inform policymakers about the state of knowledge on climate change. The IPCC identifies where there is agreement in the scientific community, where there are differences and where further research is needed. It does not conduct its own research. [/ltr]

[ltr]To produce its reports, the IPCC mobilizes hundreds of scientists. These scientists and officials are drawn from diverse backgrounds. Only a dozen permanent staff work in the IPCC’s Secretariat. [/ltr]

[ltr]The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I (the physical science basis of climate change); Working Group II (impacts, adaptation and vulnerability); and Working Group III (mitigation of climate change). It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for estimating emissions and removals. All of these are supported by Technical Support Units guiding the production of IPCC assessment reports and other products. [/ltr]

[ltr]IPCC Assessment Reports consist of contributions from each of the three working groups and a Synthesis Report. Special Reports undertake a shorter assessment of specific cross-disciplinary issues that usually span more than one working group. [/ltr]

[ltr]About the Sixth Assessment Cycle [/ltr]

[ltr]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. [/ltr]

[ltr]The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C was released in October 2018. The Methodology Report 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories was released in May 2019. The Special Report on Climate Change and Land was released in August 2019 and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate in September 2019. [/ltr]

[ltr]The three Working Group contributions to the AR6 will be finalized in 2021 and the AR6 Synthesis Report will be completed in the first half of 2022. [/ltr]

[ltr]The Global Stocktake [/ltr]

[ltr]The global stocktake is a process under the 2015 Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to take stock of collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Agreement and its long-term goals. It takes place every five years, with the first one in 2023. [/ltr]

[ltr]The outcome of the global stocktake will inform Parties to the Agreement in updating and enhancing, in a nationally determined manner, their actions and support for the goals of the Agreement, as well as enhancing international cooperation for climate action. [/ltr]

[ltr]The UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) concluded in 2016 that the products of the IPCC will be key inputs into the global stocktake, and that the IPCC products of the current sixth assessment cycle will be key inputs into the first global stocktake in 2023. [/ltr]

[ltr]For more information go to www.ipcc.ch [/ltr]