The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and United Nations Environment Programme to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.

The IPCC does not conduct its own research. It identifies where there is agreement in the scientific community, where there are differences of opinion and where further research is needed. It is a partnership between scientists and policymakers and it is this that makes its work a credible source of information for policymakers.
IPCC assessments are produced according to procedures that ensure integrity, in line with the IPCC’s overarching principles of objectivity, openness and transparency. IPCC reports are policyrelevant, but not policy-prescriptive.
Since 1988 the IPCC has produced five comprehensive Assessment Reports and several Special Reports on specific topics. IPCC has also produced Methodology Reports, which provide practical guidelines on the preparation of greenhouse gas inventories for the inventory reporting requirements of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) was finalized between 2013
and 2014.

Its key findings are:
At its 41st Session in Nairobi, Kenya, in February 2015, the Panel decided to continue to prepare Assessment Reports every 5-7 years and took a number of decisions regarding the preparation of the Sixth Assessment Report. At its 42nd Session in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in October 2015 the Panel elected a Bureau for the Sixth Assessment Report cycle.
At its 43rd Session in Nairobi, Kenya, in April 2016, it decided the topics for Special Reports in the AR6 assessment cycle, and considered modalities for addressing and enhancing the treatment of regional issues in the scoping of AR6. Besides deciding to prepare AR6, at its 43rd Session the Panel accepted the invitation of the UNFCCC to produce a Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5ºC. In addition, it decided to produce two other Special Reports, one on the oceans and cryosphere in a changing climate, and one on climate change and land.

The Panel also decided to prepare a Methodology Report to refine the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories in order to update and provide a sound scientific basis for future international climate action especially under the Paris Agreement.
The three Special Reports and Methodology Report have already been produced.
• Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5ºC (SR15)
• Special Report: Climate Change and Land (SRCCL)
• Special Report: The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC)
• Methodology Report: 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories

The contributions from the three Working Groups are due for release in 2021*:
• April 2021 - Working Group I – The Physical Science Basis
• September 2021 - Working Group III – Mitigation of Climate Change
• October 2021 - Working Group II – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
The Synthesis Report is due to be finalized in the first half of 2022 in time for the 2023 Global Stocktake by the UNFCCC, when countries will review progress towards the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming to well below 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.


Negotiations began on Monday to approve a UN science report which will anchor high level summits later this year, charged with boosting climate action worldwide.

The assessment comes as record-breaking heat waves, devasting floods and drought struck across three continents in recent weeks. “This report has been prepared in exceptional circumstances, and this is an unprecedented IPCC approval session,” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair, Hoesung Lee, told the opening session of the meeting.

The report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis, by IPCC Working Group I brings together the latest advances in climate science and multiple lines of evidence to provide an up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change.
‘Climate crossroads’
“Assessments and special reports have been foundational to our understanding of climate change, the severe and growing risks it poses throughout the world and the urgent need for action to address it,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, on Monday.

But she warned that the world is at a “climate crossroads” and decisions taken this year would determine whether it will be possible to limit global warming to 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era by the end of the century.

3 degrees looming
“The world is currently on the opposite track, heading for a 3°C rise,” she said. “We need to change course urgently.”

Following the recent deadly flooding in several western European countries, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) called for all nations to do more to hold back climate change-induced disasters.

“Climate change is already very visible. We don’t have to tell people that it exists,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told the opening session. “We are seeing more extreme events. Heatwaves, drought and the flooding events in Europe and China,” he said.

“Massive heating” in the Arctic is affecting the atmospheric dynamics in the northern hemisphere, as evidenced by stagnant weather systems and changes in the behaviour of the jet stream, added the WMO chief.

‘Science has spoken’
Some 234 authors have contributed to the assessment, which will provide the latest detailed assessment on past warming and future warming projections; show how and why the climate has changed and include an improved understanding of human influence on the climate.

There will also be a greater focus on regional information that can be used for climate risk assessments.

Time for action
“We have been telling the world that science has spoken and it’s now up to the policymakers for action”, said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.

The meeting is being held remotely from 26 July to 6 August, with the aim of ensuring that the summary for policymakers is accurate, well-balanced and presents the scientific findings clearly.

Subject to the decisions of the panel, the report will be released on 9 August, just weeks ahead of the UN General Assembly opening, a G20 summit, and the 197-nation COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. The document is the first part of the Sixth Assessment Report, which will be will be finalised in 2022​​.