Over 140 experts from 65 countries will meet from April 16 to 19, 2024, in Riga, Latvia, to draft the outline of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.
The scoping meeting is the first step in the production of the report. The draft outline developed by experts attending the scoping meeting in Riga will be considered by the Panel at its next Session at the end of July.
The Special Report on Climate Change and Cities is expected to be released in early 2027 and will be the only special report the IPCC produces in the seventh assessment cycle. It is being developed under the joint scientific leadership of Working Groups I, II, and III, with support by the Working Group II Technical Support Unit.
The Panel has already decided to produce the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and the Methodology Report on Short-lived Climate Forcers during the previous, sixth assessment cycle.
Meanwhile, the Seventh Assessment Report will comprise the three Working Group contributions and a Synthesis Report which is to be prepared by late 2029. The three Working Group contributions will cover the physical science basis of climate change; its impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation; as well as mitigation of climate change.
The IPCC will also prepare a Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage, and will revise the 1994 IPCC Technical Guidelines on impacts and adaptation as well as adaptation indicators, metrics and guidelines.
On Monday, April 15, IPCC Chair, Jim Skea, IPCC Bureau Members, and representatives from the Latvian government will give a media briefing to local media in Riga at 2 p.m. local time. On April 17 at noon local time, the IPCC Chair, accompanied by several IPCC Bureau Members, will meet and brief members of the Latvian parliament, including those from the Parliamentary Committee on Sustainable Development.
