BHOPAL, Aug 3 – More than 100 leading scientists from 56 countries are meeting in Bhopal, India, from 3 to 7 August 2026 for the Fourth Lead Author Meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Cities. This meeting is hosted by the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) with support from the government of India. The Special Report on Climate Change and Cities will provide a timely assessment of the latest science, including climate impacts and risks for urban areas, as well as adaptation and mitigation options. Authors of the report are meeting to prepare the final draft of the report, which is IPCC’s only special report in the seventh assessment cycle. It is scheduled for completion in March 2027. The Special Report was extensively scoped in early 2024, and its outline was agreed by the IPCC Panel at its 61st Session (Sofia, Bulgaria, July 2024). The report has five chapters and is drafted with a diverse author team of 97 experts from 56 countries, with four authors from India. IPCC reports are drafted through multiple review stages. The First Lead Author Meeting (Osaka, Japan, March 2025) allowed selected authors to kickstart the drafting process. The Second Lead Author Meeting (Mombasa, Kenya, July 2025) advanced work on the First Order Draft, that was then open for experts to review from mid-October to mid-December 2025. The First Order Draft received over 32,000 comments from more than 1,300 expert reviewers. During the Third Lead Author Meeting (Oslo, Norway, January 2026) authors worked on the comments received to prepare a second draft. This meeting saw the inclusion of Review Editors, who ensure that all substantive review comments are addressed – a critical step in ensuring the integrity of the IPCC review process. The Second Order Draft just completed its Government and Expert Review in July 2026. It received over 25,000 comments from 960 government and expert reviewers from 102 countries. In this meeting, authors will address review comments on the Second Order Draft and will work to prepare a final draft which will be circulated to governments before it is finalized through a final meeting between scientists and governments before its publication. ‘This is a crucial meeting for the production of our Special Report, as authors meet to resolve critical matters and finalize the draft. Based on the large volume of review comments received, we recognize that the report is of significance to many around the world and we want to ensure that their views are considered as we prepare for our final draft,’ said Bart van den Hurk, Co-Chair of Working Group II. ‘We are grateful to be hosted in the verdant campus of IIFM at Bhopal for this meeting. Our report aims to be an important resource for inhabitants of diverse cities around the world for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, and we are looking forward to a productive and meaningful meeting this week.’ said Prof Raman Sukumar, National Science Chair at the Centre for Ecological Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and also Vice-Chair of the IPCC Working Group II. For more questions about the Fourth Lead Author Meeting or if you would like to request interviews with Working Group II Co-Chairs, please contact Woo Qiyun, Senior Communications Manager of IPCC Working Group II Technical Support Unit: [email protected] For more informationIPCC Press Office, Email: [email protected]; Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120. Notes for editors What is the IPCC? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states. Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks. The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II, dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III, dealing with the mitigation of climate change. It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals. IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency. About the Seventh Assessment Cycle Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 5 to 7 years. The IPCC is currently in its seventh assessment cycle, which formally began in July 2023 with the elections of the new IPCC and Task Force Bureaus at the IPCC’s Plenary Session in Nairobi. At its first Plenary Session in the seventh assessment cycle – the 60th Plenary Session in Istanbul, Türkiye, in January 2024 – the Panel agreed to produce in this cycle the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), namely the Working Group I report on the Physical Science Basis, the Working Group II report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability and the Working Group III report on Mitigation of Climate Change. The Synthesis Report of the Seventh Assessment Report will be produced after the completion of the Working Group reports and released by late 2029. During its 62nd Plenary Session held in Hangzhou, China, in February 2025, the Panel has agreed on the outlines of the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7). At the Panel’s most recent Plenary Session in Lima, Peru, in October 2025, member governments agreed on the scientific content of the 2027 Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage. There, the Panel also agreed on the 2026 workplan for the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report. The Panel decided already during the previous cycle to produce a Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and a Methodology Report on Short-lived Climate Forcers during AR7. At the IPCC’s 61st Plenary Session held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 27 July to 2 August 2024, the Panel agreed upon the outlines for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities scheduled for approval and publication in March 2027 and for the 2027 IPCC Methodology Report on Inventories for Short-lived Climate Forcers scheduled for publication in the second half 2027. In addition, a revision of the 1994 IPCC Technical Guidelines on impacts and adaptation as well as adaptation indicators, metrics and guidelines, will be developed in conjunction with the Working Group II report and published as a separate product. IPCC’s latest report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was completed in March 2023 with the release of its Synthesis Report, which provided direct scientific input to the First Global Stocktake process under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at COP28 in Dubai. For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.