The key facts

  • The IPCC, after a week of talks in Addis Ababa, failed to agree on the release date of its seventh assessment report.
  • Saudi Arabia, India and China pushed for a delay to 2029; many European countries wanted 2028.
  • More than 30 countries previously signed a letter criticizing the delay of the process; delegates urge urgently resuming the session.

Talks end in deadlock

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) failed at the end of a week of difficult negotiations in Addis Ababa to agree on the publication date of its next report on global warming, said Benoit Faraco, France's senior envoy at the talks. According to him, 'several countries' sought to push the publication beyond 2028 — the date many European states insisted on. In a LinkedIn post, he said that a broad coalition of developed and developing countries from all five continents, which supported science and the timeline proposed by scientists, 'withstood pressure from several countries seeking to slow down the process of producing these reports.' 'This deadlock is not new, and it risks costing us precious time in responding to climate change,' Faraco added.

The positions of the parties

The IPCC is the world's leading authority on climate science. Many countries wanted to receive the next major report in 2028 for a crucial assessment of progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. However, a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia, India and China, argue that pushing the 'seventh assessment report' to 2029 would give developing countries more time to absorb its findings. When the session opened on Monday, IPCC chair Jim Skea urged states to end the deadlock and warned of the 'organizational and reputational significance' of this decision.

Letter from more than 30 countries and the reaction of vulnerable states

Last week, ministers from more than 30 states signed a letter criticizing 'those whose entrenched interests run counter to cutting greenhouse gases.' It said that 'decoupling the UN political cycle from IPCC scientific evidence would undermine global efforts to fight the climate crisis and weaken international cooperation.' European and other industrialized countries made up roughly half of the 35 signatories, but the letter was also signed by the chair of the group of least developed countries, representing the world's 44 poorest states, ministers of small island states and of many developing economies. Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, whose country fears destruction from rising sea levels, called the delay 'a disgrace': 'We came here to work, but every proposal was rejected — on inclusivity, on the relevance of science to our national planning, on the need for data for the next global stocktake. Progress was blocked until the very end — a shameful game of running out the clock when there is no time left.'

Reaction of civil society groups and context

Shrshan Venkatesh of Climate Action Network said the organization was 'deeply disappointed' by the collapse of the agreement: 'The parties had enough time to reach agreement on such an important matter.' In his words, the IPCC session should be resumed as soon as possible, 'especially while the world daily faces the grim realities of mounting climate impacts, affecting above all the peoples and communities least responsible for creating the crisis.' IPCC reports are usually released every five to seven years; the sixth assessment report was published in 2021.