Geneva, 24 July 2024
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will meet for its 61st Plenary Session in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, from 27 July to 2 August. During a week-long meeting the delegates of 195 member governments will discuss important matters related to production of IPCC reports during the seventh assessment cycle which began last July with the election of the new Chair and new IPCC Bureau members.
This is the second plenary meeting of the current cycle. Among other issues, the Panel will consider the strategic planning schedule which will define a detailed production timeline for all the IPCC reports planned for the seventh cycle and the draft outlines of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and the Methodology Report on Short-Lived Climate Forcers. Based on the Panel’s earlier decision, these two reports are scheduled for release in 2027. The Panel’s busy agenda will also include discussions about the lessons learned from the sixth assessment cycle.
The 61st Plenary Session of the IPCC will be ceremoniously opened at 10.00 a.m. local time in Sofia on Saturday, 27 July, at the Grand Hotel Millenium Sofia.
Delegates representing IPCC member governments and observer organizations will be addressed by the IPCC Chair Jim Skea, the President of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Abdulla Al Mandous, the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Bulgarian Minister of Environment and Water Petar Dimitrov, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nevyana Miteva and the Mayor of Sofia Vassil Terziev.
.The opening will also include special video messages from the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Simon Stiell and the Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation Ko Barrett.
Except for the opening segment, IPCC Plenary Sessions are closed meetings. A recording of the opening speeches and visuals will be posted on the IPCC website here.
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, 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 Taskforce Bureaus at the IPCC’s Plenary Session in Nairobi.
IPCC’s latest report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was completed in March 2023 with the release of its Synthesis Report, which provides 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.
The website includes outreach materials including videos about the IPCC and video recordings from outreach events conducted as webinars or live-streamed events.
Most videos published by the IPCC can be found on our YouTube channel.
Source – IPCC: Visit Website
Welcome Remarks by the IPCC Chair at the opening of the 61st Session of the IPCC
Sofia, 27 July 2024
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Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,
As the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the IPCC – it is my great pleasure to offer a warm welcome at the beginning of the IPCC’s 61st plenary to all government delegations, representatives of observer organizations and IPCC Bureau members, as well as distinguished guests!
We are immensely grateful to the Bulgarian government and the city of Sofia for hosting this important meeting and ensuring excellent facilities and working conditions for the successful conduct of our plenary.
I must mention that I also had the great privilege of visiting the Bulgarian Academy of Science day before yesterday, where I addressed the “International Scientific Conference on Climate risks in the Black Sea region” and witnessed the strength of the scientific capacity in this region.
This is why I am particularly pleased that the Bulgarian Minister of Environment and Water, Petar Dimitrov, is here with us.
We will also hear this morning from the Mayor of Sofia, Vassil Terziev and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nevyana Miteva.
I would also like to welcome the President of the World Meteorological Organization Abdulla Al Mandous.
We also screen the special video messages from the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, and from the Director of the Adaptation Division at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Youssef Nassef.
Special thanks are due to our Secretariat led by Abdalah Mokssit for all the hard work they did to ensure the smooth running of this session and the excellent training and pre-briefing sessions held yesterday.
This is the second plenary of the seventh assessment cycle. Building on the decisions made at the cycle’s inaugural plenary in Istanbul in January, we will continue laying down the critically important and very specific foundational building blocks for our upcoming work.
With many thanks to the IPCC Bureau members for preparing the materials for this session, I stress that our agenda over the next seven days is both complex and testing.
Based on successful scientific scoping meetings in February and April, we have the draft outlines of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and the Methodology Report on Short-Lived Climate Forcers on our agenda.
As the Panel decided in Istanbul, these two reports are to be released in 2027. The Panel’s careful consideration and agreement on the two outlines will give an important impetus to initiate their production and ensure their timely release.
As the Chair, I also must highlight the importance of the discussion about the IPCC´s strategic planning schedule for this cycle.
This has far-reaching implications in terms of the timeliness of our products, and the inclusivity of both our own processes the the science that is being assessed.
In addition to the progress reports and a few other items deriving from the decisions the Panel took at the previous sessions, over the coming days we will also examine a document prepared by the Ad-Hoc Group on lessons learned from the past cycle. Careful consideration of how to take forward the many topics covered in that document can help us shape an improved cycle in virtually every aspect of the work ahead of us.
The importance of our work over the coming days merits the full attention and commitment of delegates. I am confident that the far-reaching decisions will empower the IPCC to deliver its best and most relevant work yet.
As the individual responsible for chairing our proceedings and our complex search for consensus, I must impress upon all of us the need to uphold the highest standards of debate and ensure a constructive, solution-oriented and respectful spirit throughout this plenary. When we work together, we deliver.
Thank you.
Source – IPCC: Visit Website