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Ella Strachan, Climate Analytics
Climate Analytics, in partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), and with the support of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the Government of the United Kingdom, successfully delivered the second webinar on March 2nd, 2021 in an ongoing series which supports Pacific countries to develop comments for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 6 (AR6) drafts during the Government and Expert Review rounds.
The recent webinar focused on the Second Order Draft for Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change). The first webinar, held in January 2021, supported countries in the development of comments on the Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability) draft report.
The IPCC Assessment Reports are the cornerstone for climate change negotiations and provide a comprehensive overview of knowledge about climate change, its causes, potential impacts and response options. The Assessment Reports are developed every 6-8 years and draw primarily on published peer-reviewed research, but also reference ‘grey’ literature as well.
During the development of the reports, governments and experts have an opportunity to review the drafts three times, as the First Order Draft, Second Order Draft and Final Draft of the Summary for Policy Makers. This review process is crucial as it provides accountability and credibility to the IPCC reports, helps ensure key issues relevant to each country and region are included in the reports, and provides an opportunity to confirm all relevant research and material is appropriately referenced.
Pacific input into the reports is vital to ensure issues concerning climate change impacts and vulnerabilities specific to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are effectively addressed.
The challenge is these reports are usually very dense and technical, even the Summary for Policy Makers. Pacific climate change focal points and government representatives often wear many hats, and their capacity is frequently over-stretched. Therefore, finding the time to go through the reports in detail can be difficult.
The webinar series aims to bridge the gap between the reviewers and the reports, by contextualising key issues within the IPCC reports for the Pacific. The two webinars have brought together countries, regional organisations, experts, and leading authors of chapters and reports. In the recent webinar on Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change), Jim Skea, the co-chair of WGIII presented a summary of the report and explained the approach taken by the authors. Similarly, Dr. Michelle Mycoo, a Chapter Lead Author for the Small Islands chapter in Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability) presented a chapter overview during the Working Group II webinar in January.
Over the course of the first two webinars in the series ten countries have participated: Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The due date for comments on the Working Group III draft is 14 March 2021, 2021 and countries are currently preparing their submissions. This is the last of the Second Order Draft reviews for each of the three reports.
There will be a final opportunity for governments to provide comments and feedback on the Summary for Policy Makers for each working group report during the Final Draft review rounds throughout 2021. In light of the success of the first two webinars, Climate Analytics and SPREP will continue to facilitate countries developing national comments and providing feedback on the Final Draft with similar webinars. Please reach out to your national IPCC focal point to stay up to date with the review process in your country.
The IPCC AR 6 Synthesis Report, which brings together all the research and climate change knowledge laid out in the three Working Group reports, is due for release in 2022.
For more information, please contact Ella Strachan at [email protected].
