GENEVA, August 18 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has appointed 664 experts from 111 countries to participate in the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) as Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors and Review Editors.
These experts were nominated by governments and IPCC observer organisations
and selected by the IPCC Bureau from a global pool of 3,771 nominees.
Of the 664 appointed experts, more than half (51 per cent) come from
developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Nearly half of
the authors are female scientists, constituting 46 per cent of the group. For
comparison, in the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), the IPCC appointed 721
authors from over 90 countries. Of these, 44 per cent were from developing
countries and countries with economies in transition, 53 per cent were new to
the IPCC process, and 33 per cent were female. The nominations of all appointed
authors
have been reviewed under the IPCC’s Conflict of Interest process, and they have
accepted their invitations.
“The appointment of the author teams means that work on the Seventh
Assessment Report on the state of climate science can now begin. The author
teams, drawn from several thousand excellent nominations, ensure outstanding
expertise across a range of disciplines. We are proud that the new author teams
reflect increased diversity, in terms of both gender balance and greater
representation from developing countries and economies in transition”, said
IPCC Chair Jim Skea.
The appointed authors will now begin their work on assessing relevant
literature and preparing drafts of their respective reports on the basis of the
outlines of the Working Group contributions to the AR7, agreed upon by the
Panel at its 62nd session in Hangzhou, China, in February 2025. The First Lead
Author meeting is scheduled for early December.
The three IPCC Working Group reports are expected to start appearing in
mid-2028, while the Synthesis Report that will conclude the entire cycle will be
approved by late 2029, completing the seventh assessment cycle.
The list of selected Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors and Review
Editors by Working Group contribution to AR7 and chapter can be accessed here.
For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
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, scientists and 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 Task Force Bureaus at the IPCC’s Plenary Session in Nairobi.
At its first Plenary Session in the seventh assessment cycle – the 60th Plenary Session in Istanbul, Türkiye, in January 2024 – the Panel agreed to produce in this cycle the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), namely the Working Group I report on the Physical Science Basis, the Working Group II report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability and the Working Group III report on Mitigation of Climate Change. The Synthesis Report of the Seventh Assessment Report will be produced after the completion of the Working Group reports and released by late 2029.
During its 62nd Plenary Session held in Hangzhou, China, in February 2025, the Panel has agreed on the outlines of the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).
The Panel decided already during the previous cycle to produce a Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and a Methodology Report on Short-lived Climate Forcers during AR7.. Scientists have also been asked to deliver a Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage.
At the IPCC’s 61st Plenary Session held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 27 July to 2 August 2024, the Panel agreed upon the outlines for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities scheduled for approval and publication in March 2027 and for the 2027 IPCC Methodology Report on Inventories for Short-lived Climate Forcersscheduled for publication in the second half 2027.
In addition, a revision of the 1994 IPCC Technical Guidelines on impacts and adaptation as well as adaptation indicators, metrics and guidelines, will be developed in conjunction with the Working Group II report and published as a separate product.
IPCC’s latest report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was completed in March 2023 with the release of its Synthesis Report, which provided 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, distils 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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