GENEVA, Aug 6 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will meet in Incheon, Republic of
Korea, on 1-5 October 2018, to consider the Special Report Global Warming of 1.5ºC. Subject to approval,
the Summary for Policymakers will be released on Monday 8 October with a live-streamed
press conference.
The press conference, addressed by the IPCC Chair and Co-Chairs from the three IPCC Working Groups, will
be open to registered media, and take place at 10:00 local time (KST), 03:00 CEST, 02:00
BST, 01:00 GMT and 21:00 (Sunday 7 October) EDT.
Registered media will also be able to access the Summary for Policymakers and press release under embargo,
once they are available. They will also be able to attend the opening session of the meeting at 10:00-11:00
on Monday 1 October. All other sessions of the IPCC meeting are closed to the public and to media.
The opening session of the meeting will include statements by the Chair of the IPCC, senior officials the IPCC's two
parent bodies World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and
of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and senior officials of the Republic of Korea.
The IPCC meetings and the press conference will take place at Songdo Convensia in Incheon.
Arrangements for media registration, submitting questions remotely, booking interviews, and broadcast facilities
will be communicated in the coming weeks.
The report, whose full name is Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the
impacts of global warming of 1.5°C 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 being prepared under the scientific
leadership of all three IPCC Working Groups.
Formally, the meeting will start with the 48th Session of the IPCC. Next a joint session of the
three Working Groups chaired by their Co-Chairs will consider the Summary for Policymakers line
by line for approval. Then the 48th Session of the IPCC will resume to accept the Summary for
Policymakers and overall report.
The IPCC decided to prepare the report, in response to an invitation from the UNFCCC Conference of the
Parties at its 21st meeting in December 2015 when the Paris Agreement was signed.
For more information and interviews contact:
Jonathan Lynn, +41 22 730 8066 or Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
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and Instagram.
Notes for editors
About 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 (UN Environment)
and the World Meteorological Organization (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.
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.
The IPCC assesses the thousands of scientific papers published each year to tell policymakers what we
know and don’t know about the risks related to climate change. The IPCC identifies where there is
agreement in the scientific community, where there are differences of opinion, and where further research
is needed. It does not conduct its own research.
To produce its reports, the IPCC mobilizes hundreds of scientists. These scientists and officials are
drawn from diverse backgrounds. Only a dozen permanent staff work in the IPCC's Secretariat.
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. All of these are supported by
Technical Support Units guiding the production of IPCC assessment reports and other products.
IPCC Assessment Reports consist of contributions from each of the three working groups and a Synthesis
Report. Special Reports undertake an assessment of cross-disciplinary issues that span more than one
working group and are shorter and more focused than the main assessments.
About the Sixth Assessment Cycle
At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At
its 42nd Session in October 2015 it elected a new Bureau that would oversee the work on this report and
Special Reports to be produced in the assessment cycle. At its 43rd Session in April 2016, it decided to
produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report and AR6.
The Methodology Report to refine the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories will be
delivered in May 2019. Besides Global Warming of 1.5ºC (SR15), the IPCC will finalize two other Special Reports
in August and September 2019 respectively:
- Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change,
desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and
greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems (SRCCL);
- Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC).
The AR6 Synthesis Report will be finalized in the first half of 2022.
For more information go to
www.ipcc.ch
For more information on SR15 go to
http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/
