Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It has the objective of providing governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies, and is made up of the governments that are members of the United Nations or World Meteorological Organization. Thousands of people around the world contribute to the work of the IPCC, including volunteering their time as expert authors.

The IPCC is divided into three Working Groups and a Task Force. These Working Groups focus on various topics from the physical science basis of climate change, to climate adaptation, and climate change mitigation, while the Task Force’s objective is to develop a methodology for calculating and reporting national greenhouse gas emissions and removals. The IPCC may establish other Task Groups for set time periods to consider specific topics. (1)

The IPCC Assessment Reports (AR) are released approximately every 5 to 7 years. These reports bring together the latest climate science at the time to inform global climate policy and negotiations. The process involves several stages, going from scoping, to author selection, drafting, review, and approval.

The IPCC’s work is funded through a mix of voluntary contributions from UN member countries and intergovernmental organisations like the UNFCCC, United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) - all of which are also funded through voluntary member contributions.

The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are a set of possible futures that climate researchers in the IPCC consider in their models. They tell us what the world could look like depending on degrees of human development and the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted over the coming decades (which is currently unknown and depends on our achievements of climate targets).

The principle of political neutrality is important as the IPCC sits at the boundary between science and policy. Its credibility depends on limiting direct government influence over how assessments are produced. As an institution that shapes how the future is imagined, with the power to choose which options are on the table and which are hidden from view, the IPCC must take responsibility for its power. It must remain transparent about its role, protect space for diverse perspectives, and ensure that its assessments keep open a wide range of policy options rather than narrowing them prematurely.

Representation in the IPCC has improved but remains uneven. Across the six assessment cycles, women and experts from the Global South have become more visible, rising from under 10% women and under 20% Global South authors in 1990 to roughly 30% women and over 40% Global South contributors in 2023. However, significant disparities persist. Working Group I remains the most male-dominated, authors from the US and UK still dominate overall participation, and many experts report barriers including language, discrimination, funding constraints, and the intense, unpaid workload.

Structural and procedural barriers continue to limit equitable participation. Becoming an IPCC author depends on national focal points or observer organisations, and selection processes vary widely, allowing unconscious bias to shape outcomes. Long‑standing obstacles identified by the IPCC include limited information, communication, human resources, institutional support, and funding. These continue to affect developing‑country participation, with survey data showing that many contributors feel non‑English speakers and experts from developing countries are not fully able to contribute. (6)

The IPCC’s latest report on mitigation was released in 2022 and focussed on the way we can mitigate against the worst effects of climate change across several areas including fossil fuels, carbon capture, and finance. This report is a “final warning for humanity” and is the first report to highlight the social sciences and “demand management” - namely, changing our lifestyles and cutting emissions quickly to avoid a climate catastrophe. Unless there are immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is “beyond reach”.