The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has opened its 62nd Plenary Session in Hangzhou, China, to consider and agree on the draft outlines of the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).
During the week-long session, more than 400 delegates representing Panel's 195 member governments will also consider the respective timelines and budgets for these four reports.
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.
"This is a pivotal session for the delivery of the IPCC's Seventh Assessment Report", said IPCC Chair Jim Skea .
China's Special Envoy for Climate Change Liu Zhenmin, and Chen Zhenlin, Administrator of the China Meteorological Administration, welcomed delegates and observer organisations at the opening ceremony of the plenary session .
"The findings of our work are not just academic; they serve as a guiding compass for governments as they navigate the complexities of climate change," WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett told the ceremony , recalling that 2024 was the warmest year on record, with global temperatures reaching approximately 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels.
"And if it isn't true yet, I would venture to say it will be soon, that every one of us will know somebody who has been affected by an extreme event like severe flooding or extreme heat," she said.
The ceremony also included screening of video messages from Inger Andersen , the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, and Simon Stiell the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The session will also consider the Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage.
The IPCC also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals.
WMO and UNEP are co-sponsors of the IPCC, which assesses thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
