18 May 2016: Governments have requested additional reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and decided to incorporate the latest science as part of the Paris Agreement’s global stocktake process, which will take place every five years in order to strengthen implementation of the Paris Agreement. To advance dialogue on how IPCC assessments and reports will provide input to the global stocktake and to generate a better understanding of the global stocktake’s information needs relevant for the IPCC, a special event on IPCC assessments and the global stocktake was convened on 18 May 2016, during the 2016 Bonn Climate Change Conference.

The event’s agenda covered: goals, approaches, products and timeframes of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6); the physical science of the global stocktake; impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and possible new elements in support of the global stocktake; mitigation and the global stocktake; methodological work in support of the Paris Agreement; and possible options for modalities for using IPCC reports to inform the global stocktake.

More specifically, the event addressed: global stocktake information needs that the IPCC can address, beyond the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5); how to publish IPCC products during the sixth assessment period to better support the global stocktake; coordination of IPCC and other input to the global stocketake to ensure complementarity; and experiences under the UNFCCC that can offer lessons in terms of modalities for considering IPCC input.

During the discussions, a number of participants supported aligning IPCC synthesis reports in five-year cycles to coincide with the year before the five-year global stocktake. Various developing countries called for more analysis and scenarios regarding requirements for achieving the 1.5°C temperature limit. Some countries advocated for more IPCC reporting on adaptation metrics, regional-level information, policy relevance and non-peer reviewed or grey literature. Participants also suggested incorporating best practices using, for example, a structured expert dialogue (SED), as was done during the 2013-2015 review.

The event, which was attended by more than 200 participants, representing governments, the IPCC and observer organizations, was co-hosted by the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) Co-Chair and the IPCC. [UNFCCC Press Release] [Event Website] [IPCC/SBSTA Event Information Note]