Context: IPCC Working Group III is meeting in India to further preparations of Sixth Assessment Report.

More than 200 experts from 65 countries will come together to start preparing a first draft of the report, which is due to be finalized in July 2021. 

The meeting is hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India.

Background:

IPCC Working Group III is responsible for assessing the mitigation of climate change – responses and solutions to the threat of dangerous climate change by reducing emissions and enhancing sinks of the greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming.

Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014, and provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement.

What is Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)?

1. It will examine topics such as the link between consumption and behaviour and greenhouse gas emissions, and the role of innovation and technology.
2. It will assess the connection between short to medium-term actions and their compatibility with the long-term temperature goal in the Paris Agreement.
3. It will assess mitigation options in sectors such as energy, agriculture, forestry and land use, buildings, transport and industry.

What next?

1. Each of the three IPCC Working Groups will release their contributions to the Sixth Assessment Report in 2021.
2. A Synthesis Report in 2022 will integrate them together with the three special reports that the IPCC is producing in the current assessment cycle.
3. It will be released in time to inform the 2023 global stocktake by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) when countries will review progress towards the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming to well below 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.

About the IPCC:
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change.

Established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988.

Aim: to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Composition: It has 195 member states.

The IPCC has three working groups:

1. Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change.
2. Working Group II, dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.
3. Working Group III, dealing with the mitigation of climate change.