Authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C will meet from Monday, March 6 to Friday, March 10 2017 in São Paulo, Brazil, for the First Lead Author Meeting of the Special Report. The meeting, involving 86 scientific, technical and socio-economic experts from 39 countries, initiates work on the Special Report, which will be completed in September 2018.
The meeting for the report, whose full title is “Global Warming of 1.5ºC, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty”, is holding courtesy of an invitation of the government of Brazil through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
“This Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC enhances the policy relevance of the IPCC, and marks the start of the most ambitious climate assessment cycle undertaken by the IPCC since its inception in 1988,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “The IPCC continues to accomplish the assessment of our understanding of climate change with scientific rigour, robustness and transparency, thanks to the continued engagement and commitment of the international climate research community.”
The experts have the task of initiating the best and most comprehensive assessment of the status of knowledge on the climate system with respect to a warming of 1.5ºC. The report will assess the impacts of a global warming of 1.5°C on both human and natural environments, as well as study current and emerging adaptation and mitigation options and their linkages with sustainable development, poverty eradication, and reducing inequalities.
During the first of four lead author meetings, the chapter teams will identify key issues, design an outline of each chapter, discuss options for treating cross-cutting topics between chapters and other IPCC products, and plan the author team’s work in preparing the draft chapter content.
The Special Report is being prepared in response to an invitation from the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2015 in Paris, France. The outline of the report was developed at the scoping meeting last year and agreed by the IPCC member governments in October 2016.
The 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 Organisation (WMO) in 1988 to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. It has 195 member states.
