RIGA, Latvia, May 30 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change, will present its findings with a focus on the Baltic region at an outreach event in Riga on 30 May – 1 June 2018.
 
It will also present its work programme for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) cycle at the event hosted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia.
 
"We are grateful to the IPCC for this opportunity to hear the most up to date and trusted information on climate change as well as develop closer cooperation. Climate change is becoming increasingly evident and important for Latvia's society and in order to mitigate and adapt we have to better understand it," said Kaspars Gerhards, Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of Latvia.
 
IPCC Bureau members and authors will participate in workshops as part of the three-day outreach event, attended by policymakers, practitioners, city administration representatives, scientists, civil society, business, the general public and media representatives from the Baltic countries.
 
The event is taking place shortly after the selection of authors by the IPCC for its next comprehensive assessment – the AR6 -- and before the launch of the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) due in October 2018.
 
"We would like to raise awareness about the work we are doing, encourage the research community in the Baltic to tackle local questions providing us with literature that can feed into the AR6, and foster participation in future assessments," said Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Vice-Chair of Working Group III of the IPCC.
 
Scientists will present the latest IPCC report, the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), completed in 2014, which was a crucial input to the Paris Climate Change Agreement reached in December 2015. AR5 found the world has the means to limit global warming and build a more prosperous and sustainable future, but pathways to limit warming to 2ºC relative to pre-industrial levels would require substantial emissions reductions over the next few decades.
 
"Latvia and the other countries in the Baltic region face challenges related to climate change, including warming and heat waves that may harm people's health", said Hans-Otto Pörtner, Co-Chair of Working Group II of the IPCC. "However, adaptation and mitigation strategies exist for reducing these risks and creating opportunities for a sustainable future," he added.
 
As part of the outreach event there will be several workshops tailored to the various audiences. Some of them will be streamed live.
 

For more information, contact:
Webpage of the event: http://bit.ly/outreach_latvia
Nina Peeva
IPCC Information and Communications Specialist
E-Mail: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Office phone: +41 22 730 8142
 
Follow IPCC on  Facebook, Twitter @ipcc_ch, LinkedIn and Instagram.
 

Notes for editors
 

What is 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 (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. It has 195 member states.
 
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.
 
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014. The next comprehensive assessment is due to be completed in 2022. The IPCC also publishes special reports on more specific issues between assessment reports.
 
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 first of these special reports, to be finalized in September 2018, 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.
 
The Methodology Report, entitled 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, will be delivered in May 2019.
 
In August 2019 the IPCC will finalize 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.
 
The Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate will be delivered in September 2019.
 
The IPCC will approve the outlines of AR6 in September 2017. The three working contributions will be released in 2021 and the Synthesis Report in April 2022.
 
For more information go to www.ipcc.ch