Bangkok, March 27 – The 64
th
Plenary Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) closed in Bangkok this evening. The session discussed the review of the Principles and Procedures that govern IPCC’s work. These should be reviewed every five years and are critical to ensuring the IPCC’s capacity to produce comprehensive, neutral, objective, transparent, inclusive, and robust assessments of climate-related science.
The Panel decided to consider the review
of the IPCC Principles and Procedures at future sessions.
During the Plenary, the member
governments also decided to consider the timeline of the Seventh Assessment
Report (AR7).
While the Panel made no formal
decision, the member governments clearly indicated that they want the timeline
agreed at its next session.
“In IPCC, we use our best endeavours
to achieve consensus. Sometimes, as we pursue our best endeavours, we strive in
slightly different directions. But I think the spirit of compromise and
flexibility in IPCC was shown in the end,” said IPCC Chair Jim Skea, addressing
the delegates in closing the session.
During the four-day session, the
Panel also considered the financial situation and fundraising for the IPCC
Trust Fund for this cycle and beyond to ensure its long-term sustainability.
Supported entirely by voluntary contributions from member governments, the IPCC
Trust Fund is the key mechanism enabling participation by developing-country
governments and scientists in the IPCC’s work.
The Panel also agreed on the work
programme of the Task Group for Data Support for Climate Change Assessments.
The 64
th
Plenary Session of the IPCC was also the last one for the IPCC Secretary Abdalah Mokssit, who led the IPCC Secretariat for the past decade, and will retire in the next few months. On this occasion, the delegates, Bureau members, observer organizations, and staff expressed appreciation for the outgoing Secretary’s strong commitment and rich contributions.
For more information, contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email:
ipcc-media@wmo.int
;
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120;
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).
At the Panel’s most
recent Plenary Session in Lima, Peru, in October 2025, member governments
agreed on the scientific content of the 2027 Methodology Report on Carbon
Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage. There,
the Panel also agreed on the 2026 workplan for the three Working Group
contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report.
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.
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 Forcers
scheduled 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.
For more information visit
www.ipcc.ch
— Source: IPCC (https://www.ipcc.ch/2026/03/27/ipcc-64th-plenary-session/)