The key facts

  • IPCC talks in Addis Ababa broke up on Friday after a week of disputes without agreement on the report's timeline or budget.
  • Most of the nearly 200 countries want the report by the 2028 UN summit; Saudi Arabia, India and China insist on 2029.
  • 117 scientists signed an open letter pledging to continue their work and warning of the significance of the 2028 summit.

Deadlock in Addis Ababa

Talks of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were broken off late on Friday evening after a week of intense discussions in the Ethiopian capital. Delegations failed to agree on when the panel's next major report should be released — a key scientific document on which international climate agreements, national policies and even international court rulings rely.

2028 versus 2029

Many of the nearly 200 IPCC member countries want the report to be ready for the important UN climate summit in 2028. That summit is to take stock of the world's progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and will be a key decision-making point. However, a number of participants, including Saudi Arabia, India and China, believe more time is needed to incorporate science and data from developing countries, and propose postponing the report to 2029.

Statement by the Chair

IPCC Chair Jim Skea said on Monday that reaching consensus on the report timeline is vital, because the reports help convey the scale of climate risks and the urgency of mitigation, adaptation and international cooperation. He explained that the meeting in Addis Ababa ran beyond the scheduled closing time, as a result of which many countries — primarily small states most vulnerable to climate change — were forced to leave. In his words, all countries must be able to participate fully in the negotiations so that the assessments remain 'robust, representative and responsive to the needs of all countries'. Skea said agreements were reached on many issues, including artificial intelligence, but there is still no consensus on the report timeline or the IPCC budget. He promised to reconvene the plenary session 'at the earliest opportunity'.

Scientists' reaction

About 117 scientists working on the new report signed an open letter, which AFP has reviewed. 'Our message to governments and the world is simple: we will keep working,' it says. The authors stress that the world's response to the 'urgency of the climate crisis' must rest on the best available data, and warn: 'An assessment that arrives after the decisions it is meant to inform cannot fulfil its purpose.' In their view, the second Global Stocktake in 2028 is precisely such a decision-making point, and the world should not meet it without the latest IPCC assessment.

About the IPCC

The IPCC, created in 1988, brings together the assessments of thousands of climate scientists who work voluntarily on large-scale reports. They are usually published every five to seven years; the last one was released in 2021.