GENEVA, Oct 8– The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be holding its Sixty-Fifth Plenary Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 12 to 16 October 2026. The 65th Session of the IPCC is hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Opening session The opening session of the meeting will take place on Monday, 12 October 2026, at 16.00 Addis Ababa time (UTC+3) at the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute (EMI) in Addis Ababa. During the opening ceremony, delegates will be addressed by IPCC Chair Sir Jim Skea, and Ethiopia’s Minister of Water and Energy Dr. Eng. Habtamu Itefa. The ceremony will also include video messages from the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization Prof. Celeste Saulo, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Environment Programme Ms. Inger Andersen, and the Executive Director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Mr. Simon Stiell. Venue: Ethiopian Meteorological Institute, Bole Sub City, Woreda 02, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Media assets, including text and video of the speeches, visuals and B-roll from the opening session will be posted here. Except for the opening session, the IPCC Plenary meetings are closed to the media. Journalists based in Addis Ababa interested in attending the opening ceremony of the 65th Plenary Session of the IPCC should register via e-mail with Ms Hirut Alemu at the Public Relations and Communications office of the EMI (e-mail: [email protected]) by the end of day local time on Sunday 11 October 2026. Registered journalists should arrive at the Ethiopian Meteorology Institute (Bole Sub city Woreda 02, Addis Ababa) at 2:45PM local time on Monday 12 October. For more information, contact:IPCC 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. Participation in the IPCC is open to all member countries of WMO and the United Nations (UN). Thousands of experts 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 agreed on the outlines of the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7). At the Panel’s 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 of 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.