IPCC agrees outlines of new reports in support of Paris report on 1.5ºC goal in 2018

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has agreed the outlines of two new reports that will help governments implement the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The Panel approved the outlines of Global Warming of 1.5ºC, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty, to be delivered in 2018, and the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, to be finalized in 2019.

The decision on the outlines, or tables of contents, which had been drafted by scoping meetings in August, clears the way for the IPCC to launch the call for nominations for authors for both reports at the beginning of November.

The special report on 1.5ºC was requested by governments at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in December 2015, which set a target of limiting global warming to well below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to hold it to 1.5ºC.

“The IPCC worked in a positive spirit of cooperation to build on the scientific expertise from the scoping meeting while highlighting policymakers’ priorities. This agreement on the outline means the IPCC can start work on a scientific assessment for policymakers of what warming of 1.5ºC would mean and how we could get there,” said IPCC Vice-Chair Thelma Krug, who chaired the scientific steering committee for the scoping meeting that drafted the outline.

The 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines will be prepared by the IPCC’s Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories to provide governments with updated knowledge on how to estimate the level of their greenhouse gas emissions and removals – critical information for tracking progress on meeting the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement goals.

“This refinement of inventory guidelines will greatly help governments improve their estimates of national emissions and removals of greenhouse gases,” said Task Force Co-Chair Kiyoto Tanabe.

The decisions were taken at the 44th Session of the IPCC, held at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok on 17-20 October 2016.