News Excerpt:

The 60th session of the IPCC, held in Istanbul between January 16 and 20, was fraught with intense debates on how and when the panel will inform the world about the state of the crisis and to decide on the roadmap for the seventh cycle.

Key highlights of the report:

• The meeting, attended by 195 member countries, was held to draw out a schedule for the 7th, and possibly the most important cycle with time running out on meeting the Paris goal of 1.5°C.
• According to schedule, the final Synthesis Report of this cycle is expected by the end of 2029.
• An important development from the IPCC meeting was the resolution to produce a report related to state and needs for adaptation in countries.
• Many developing countries led by South Africa underscored the importance of IPCC updating its 1994 technical guidelines on adaptation including adaptation indicators, metrics and methodologies. 
• India, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Egypt, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Bolivia and Brazil, among others supported this call.
• India’s role was critical in ensuring that the IPCC agreed to produce a special knowledge product on adaptation in AR7, including the revision and update of the 1994 Technical Guidelines on Impact Assessment and consideration of adaptation metrics, targets and indicators.
• The developed countries mostly opposed this or diluted this into a mitigation-centric report while developing countries hesitated on the modalities and were confused.

Concerns raised by India in the meeting:

• India along with other developing countries flagged serious concerns over attempts by developed nations to shorten the timeline for the delivery of the seventh assessment cycle report of IPCC.
• Pointing to the implications of a shortened cycle would have on the AR7 cycle, India asked the co-chairs what the meaning of “comprehensive” was.
• It also said that the actual product and delivery would rest with the authors who were not in “the scene yet”. 
• It further added that the approach seemed to be to “fit the science into the GST (Global Stocktake)” and stressed that science is important “irrespective of the GST”.
• India added that underrepresented communities did not mean just indigenous peoples. 
• India said - “In science, developing country authors are also underrepresented, women authors are underrepresented.” 
• India was supported by Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) and Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC).

About the Seventh Assessment Cycle:

• Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 5 to 7 years. 
• The IPCC is currently in its seventh assessment cycle, which formally began in July 2023 with the elections of the new IPCC and Taskforce Bureaus at the IPCC’s Plenary Session in Nairobi.  
• IPCC’s latest report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was completed in March 2023 with the release of its Synthesis Report, which provides direct scientific input to the first global stocktake process under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at COP28 in Dubai.
• The Sixth Assessment Report comprises three Working Group contributions and a Synthesis Report - 
• The Working Group I contribution Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021. 
• The Working Group II contribution, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was released on 28 February 2022. 
• The Working Group III contribution, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, was released on 4 April 2022.
• The Synthesis Report to the Sixth Assessment Report, distils and integrates the findings of the three Working Group assessments as well as the three Special Reports released in 2018 and 2019.