Delegates at the 63rd session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were able to compromise on the outline of a methodology report on carbon dioxide (CO2) removal technologies and carbon capture, utilization, and storage. However, this win was overshadowed by the Panel’s inability to reach agreement on the workplan for the seventh assessment report (AR7) – a priority for IPCC-63.

As the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) summary report of the meeting highlights, IPCC-63 followed “several contentious meetings that overran their scheduled time.” While agreement on the AR7 workplan was the Panel’s top priority for the meeting, “deliberations on both procedural and substantive issues were lengthy, difficult, and not always fruitful,” revealing entrenched positions – “despite the presentation of a compromise proposal with longer timelines than in earlier versions.”

According to ENB, “many want to set a timeline that ensures delivery of key reports” – including the three reports of the IPCC Working Groups – in time for the 2028 Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement on climate change. Others prefer “a timeline that will give governments more time to review the reports prior to their approval.” While “both camps have cited the need to strengthen inclusivity, particularly of authors and government representatives from developing countries,” consensus remained elusive, leading to agreement to “a measure that would allow work to continue in 2026, as indicated in the approved budget.” Amid “significant frustration and a lack of optimism on the ability to find common ground on this issue,” the timeline will be taken up again at IPCC-64 in March 2026.

“The debate about the timeline is unprecedented in the history of the IPCC,” the ENB analysis of the meeting observes. In both the fifth and sixth assessment cycles, the workplan and the timeline were agreed with little difficulty. “The lengthy debates and detailed scrutiny of the timeline in this cycle have caused many IPCC-63 delegates to express concern that the IPCC Bureau is being micromanaged by governments, to the detriment of the IPCC’s work.”

Delegates continued discussions on scoping of the methodology report on carbon dioxide (CO2) removal technologies and carbon capture, utilization, and storage – another agenda item that rolled over from IPCC-62. ENB reports that while there is consensus on the first five proposed volumes and part of Volume 6, “delegates continued to express reservations on the inclusion of a volume on the direct removal of CO2 from waterbodies, citing concerns about the effectiveness, scalability, legality, and environmental impacts of these technologies.” Compromise on the outline of the methodology report also hinges on agreement to hold an expert meeting on alkalinity enhancement and direct ocean capture the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and the three IPCC Working Groups will co-organize.

Other issues considered by the Panel at its 63rd meeting include budgetary matters, progress reports, a report from the Conflict of Interest Committee, matters related to the UNFCCC and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the admission of observer organizations. Delegates also agreed to convene an expert meeting on regional climate information and a new interactive atlas.

IPCC-63 convened in Lima, Peru, from 27-30 October 2025. Approximately 300 participants, including representatives of 89 member countries as well as international organizations and civil society, attended the meeting. [ENB Coverage of IPCC-63]