Experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will meet in New Delhi, India, on September 30 to October 4, 2019 to advance their work on the Working Group III contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).
Over 200 experts from 65 countries will come together for one week to start preparing a first draft of the report, which is due to be finalised in July 2021. The meeting is hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India.
Four Nigerian scientists are part of the IPCC Working Group III contribution to the AR6.
They are: Chukwumerije Okereke of the Alex Ekwueme University, Ebonyi State (Chapter 1: Introduction and Framing), Chioma Daisy Onyige of the Department of Sociology, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State (Chapter 5: Demand, services and social aspects of mitigation), Ogheneruona Diemuodeke of the University of Port Harcourt (Chapter 10: Transport), and Sanusi Mohamed Ohiare of the Rural Electrification Agency (Chapter 15: Investment and finance).
IPCC Working Group III is responsible for assessing the mitigation of climate change – responses and solutions to the threat of dangerous climate change by reducing emissions and enhancing sinks of the greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming.
The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) will examine topics such as the link between consumption and behaviour and greenhouse gas emissions, and the role of innovation and technology. The report will assess the connection between short to medium-term actions and their compatibility with the long-term temperature goal in the Paris Agreement. It will assess mitigation options in sectors such as energy, agriculture, forestry and land use, buildings, transport and industry.
“Following our previous Lead Author Meeting in the United Kingdom, it is a pleasure to be in the IPCC Working Group III Technical Support Unit’s other home country, India,” said Priyadarshi R. Shukla, Co-Chair of Working Group III. “IPCC authors and scientists are working to deliver the most relevant and up-to-date research on climate change mitigation.”
The First Order Draft will be available for Expert Review from January 13 to March 8, 2020. The Second Order Draft will be open for Government and Expert Review from July 13 to September 13, 2020, along with the first draft of the Summary for Policymakers. The IPCC Panel is due to consider the Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report at a plenary session from July 12 to 16, 2021.
“Building on previous Working Group III assessments, this report will emphasise what can be done in the near term to mitigate climate change, and how mitigation actions can be enabled through policy, institution-building and finance,” said Jim Skea, Co-Chair of Working Group III.
“Mitigation efforts will be set firmly in the context of sustainable development and development pathways compatible with a just transition towards net zero emissions,” he said.
Each of the three IPCC Working Groups will release their contributions to the Sixth Assessment Report in 2021. A Synthesis Report in 2022 will integrate them together with the three special reports that the IPCC is producing in the current assessment cycle. It will be released in time to inform the 2023 global stocktake by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (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.
