About Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):
- The IPCC was established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988.
- Membership: The IPCC is an organisation of governments that are members of the United Nations or the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The IPCC currently has 195 members.
- Objective: To assess scientific, technical, and socio-economic information relevant to the understanding of human-induced climate change, potential impacts of climate change, and options for mitigation and adaptation.
- The IPCC provides governments with scientific information for use in developing climate policies.
- The main activity of the IPCC is the preparation of reports assessing the state of knowledge of climate change. These include assessment reports, special reports and methodology reports.
- IPCC reports are also key inputs into international climate change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
- The IPCC does not undertake new research or monitor climate-related data.
- Instead, it conducts assessments of the state of climate change knowledge on the basis of published and peer-reviewed scientific and technical literature.
- Scientists volunteer their time 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, impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
- The IPPC’s first assessment report was released in 1990. The IPCC finished its Sixth Assessment Report cycle in 2023 and has now entered its Seventh Assessment Report cycle.
What are the IPCC working groups?
- It comprises three working groups, which focus on different aspects of climate science and climate change response.
- Working Group I: looks at the physics of climate change;
- Working Group II: examines climate change impacts and adaptation;
- Working Group III: focuses on climate change mitigation;
- The three working groups release separate reports, which are then compiled into a synthesis report.
