By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
The meeting of member governments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is expected to decide on the roadmap for the seventh cycle.
IPCC was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 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.
The meeting at the Panel’s 60th Plenary Session this week in Istanbul, Türkiye follows the election of the new IPCC and Task Force Bureaus at the end of July 2023.
The four-day meeting is the first plenary in the seventh cycle and is scheduled to run from 16 to 19 January. The delegates of 195 member governments will consider and decide on the programme of work, including the number and scope of scientific reports the IPCC will deliver in this cycle. The Panel already decided at its 43rd Session in April 2016 that a special report on climate change and cities will be produced in the seventh cycle. It also decided at its 49th Session in May 2019 that the seventh cycle will deliver a methodology report on short-lived climate forcers.
The opening ceremony of the 60th Plenary Session is scheduled to begin at 10.00 a.m. local time in Istanbul (UTC +3) on Tuesday 16 January 2024 at the Istanbul Lutfi Kirdar International Convention and Exhibition Centre (ICEC).
During the opening ceremony the IPCC member governments and observer organisations will be addressed by the IPCC Chair Jim Skea, Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Mehmet Özhaseki, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Inger Andersen, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization Celeste Saulo, and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Simon Stiell.
The IPCC Plenary sessions are closed meetings, except for the opening. A recording of the opening ceremony and speeches will be posted on the IPCC website here.
