The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC was created to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options.

Through its assessments, the IPCC determines the state of knowledge on climate change. It identifies where there is agreement in the scientific community on topics related to climate change, and where further research is needed. The reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency.  The IPCC does not conduct its own research. IPCC reports are neutral, policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive.  The assessment reports are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. Created by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988, the IPCC  has 195 Member countries. In the same year, the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC.

The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report addresses the most up-to-date physical 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, and global and regional climate simulations.

View the Sixth Assessment report.

Source: IPCC.ch

On Radio National Breakfast with Kylie Morris on Friday 13 August 2021 guests Dr Guillaume Mauger, Research Scientist with the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington, Rebecca Mikula-Wright, Chief Executive Officer of the Investor Group on Climate Change, Professor David Sanderson and Judith Neilson Chair in Architecture at the University of NSW discussed the IPCC annoucement.

Listen here.

(Producer: Gillian Bennett | Duration: 15min 59sec |Broadcast: Fri 13 Aug 2021, 8:05am)