Last Friday evening (16 October), I suspended the 65th Plenary Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Addis Ababa. This means that the work of this Plenary has not finished. While we successfully concluded the bulk of our agenda items, including agreement on a new process to ensure the appropriate application and use of artificial intelligence, we have yet to reach consensus on two important topics: the timelines for the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) and the IPCC budget that will support our work. When our work ran past our planned conclusion time, it became clear that many delegates, including those from our most vulnerable countries and those with small delegations, had to leave to return home. Inclusive participation by these and all other governments in IPCC plenary sessions and its work is essential to ensure that global climate assessments are robust, representative, and responsive to the needs of all countries. Full participation in IPCC plenaries enables member governments to contribute their national and regional experiences, scientific knowledge, and policy priorities to critical IPCC processes as well as to the review and approval of IPCC assessment reports. Inclusive engagement reinforces the authority, legitimacy, balance, and policy relevance of the IPCC’s findings and helps ensure that the assessments reflect diverse geographical contexts, development challenges, and adaptation needs. For me, as a scientist and the Chair of this unique scientific and intergovernmental process, inclusivity must include equitable participation in the Panel´s decision-making, access to scientific information, capacity-building, financial and technical support, and effective participation in all critical deliberations. Reaching consensus on the schedule for our upcoming IPCC reports is vital. They provide authoritative scientific evidence to inform national climate policies, strengthen adaptation and resilience, improve disaster risk reduction, guide climate-smart development, and support access to climate finance. Our reports also help communicate the scale of climate risks and the urgency of mitigation, adaptation, and international cooperation. Working with our member governments and the IPCC scientific leadership, and with support from the IPCC Secretariat, I will reconvene this plenary session at the earliest opportunity so the Panel can effectively conclude its business. Jim SkeaIPCC Chair 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 63rd 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.