IPCC confirmed planned content and schedules of next reports

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC decided on the topics, extent and schedule of the next two IPCC reports in its session held in Bangkok this week. The Special Report on global warming of 1.5°C will focus on responding to the request made in the Paris climate agreement. The report will discuss the effects of global warming of 1.5°C and the emissions reduction pathways that would lead to reaching that target. It will also assess the methods to strengthen the mitigation of climate change. The report, expected to comprise about 225 pages, will be published in September 2018.

TThis summary compiled by the IPCC will be based on scientific research and will increase our understanding about the target of 1.5°C and how it is linked to the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations," says Juhani Damski, Director General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the chair of Finland's IPCC group.

The IPCC's guidelines on drawing up the national greenhouse gas inventories for 2006 will be updated with a Methodology Report. The report will refine and update previous guidelines and clarify how the guidelines should be applied. ‘The report will be completed in May 2019 and it will improve the coverage and accuracy of the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions,' says Riitta Pipatti, Development Manager at Statistics Finland and a member of the Task Force Bureau, the IPCC's inventory programme on greenhouse gases.

The two reports will be the first ones in the IPCC's sixth cycle of assessment reports. It will also include Special Reports on the impacts of climate change on oceans and glaciers, and on the relationship between climate change, desertification, sustainable land management and food security, all due to be completed in 2019. A comprehensive assessment on climate change, its effects, and mitigation and adaptation drawn up by the scientific community will be completed between 2021 and 2022.

Finland will provide experts for the writing of the Special Report on global warming of 1.5°C, starting at the beginning of 2017, and for the other reports, whose preparation will start in 2017 and 2018.

Further information:

Heikki Tuomenvirta, Head of Group, Finnish Meteorological Institute, firstname.lastname@fmi.fi, tel. +358 29 539 4122

Riitta Pipatti, Development Manager, Statistics Finland, firstname.lastname@stat.fi, tel. +358 29 551 3543 

Pirkko Heikinheimo, Counsellor, Ministry of the Environment, etunimi.sukunimi@ymparisto.fi, tel. +358 29 525 0078

http://ipcc.ch/