IPCC Pledges Strong Footprint At COP27

Posted by Eric Ojo African News, Latest Headlines Saturday, October 29th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has reassured that it will have a strong footprint during the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.

IPCC is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It 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.

Notably, in the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.

Scheduled to hold from 7 to 18 November, COP27 has been described as an “African COP” with the event’s tagline “Together for implementation”. It’s expected the severe impact countries in Africa are facing due to climate change, including droughts, floods, erosion and desertification will be key topics of discussion.

One of the main objectives of this conference, will be the pledge to limit global warming to below 2C and how to keep the 1.5C target. Other key areas include addressing extreme weather events such as flooding or forest fires, with the objective to enhance “global agenda for action on adaptation”, climate finance and support and collaboration to turn what was discussed at Glasgow COP26 into action.

The IPCC has been officially invited to provide scientific input to several key UNFCCC official events. On 8 November, IPCC’s Working Group II will be delivering its findings relevant to assessing adaptation needs.

On the same day, IPCC’s Working Groups II and III will present the gender-related aspects of climate change as they are reflected in their contributions to the Sixth Assessment Report at a special Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) events.

Scientists from IPCC’s Working Groups I and II will be taking part in the Earth Information Day scheduled for Wednesday 9 November. IPCC experts will also be contributing to a series of roundtables and poster sessions of the second Global Stocktake Technical Dialogue scheduled from 7 to 11 November.

Together with the Secretariat of the UNFCCC, the IPCC Taskforce on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories will launch the new generation of IPCC Inventory Software at an official side event on 9 November.

The IPCC will also play a major convening role in a UNFCCC side event on 11 November with several partners focused on a summary of the specific findings of the Sixth Assessment Report relevant for urban policymakers worldwide.

The IPCC together with the World Meteorological Organization and other partners will also run a pavilion named “Science for Climate Action” (#Science4ClimateAction) with a rich programme of scientific panels and events.

These live-streamed hybrid events will mainly address the key findings of the two major IPCC reports released since the last COP; the Working Group II report on vulnerability, impacts and adaptation released in February, and the Working Group III report on the mitigation of climate change released in April.