Background

The summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the Sixth Assessment report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was approved in plenary on 6 August 2021 which marked the finalization of the WGI contribution to AR6.

The WGI contribution represents the most up-to-date physical science understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, global and regional climate simulations. It shows how and why climate has changed to date, and the improved understanding of human influence on a wider range of climate characteristics, including extreme events. The AR6 reflects greater focus on regional information that can be used for climate risk assessments.

The WGI contribution benefited from 234 authors from 65 countries and 517 contributing authors with over 14,000 scientific publications assessed and over 78,000 expert and government review comments provided and addressed. Of all authors of the AR6, 44% come from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, 53% are new to the IPCC process and 33% are women.

The SBSTA and IPCC organised a joint three-hour event during COP 26 to provide a forum for Parties to directly engage with IPCC experts to enhance their understanding of the new knowledge and key findings contained in the WGI report. This event was co-chaired by the chairs of the SBSTA and the IPCC.

In that regard, the SBSTA and IPCC Chairs prepared an information note outlining the purpose of the special event, the proposed agenda and to provide further background information to potential participants. 

Agenda

Full presentation

Introductory video