9 November 2026, Antalya, Turkey Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends, ladies and gentlemen, As Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, I am grateful for the opportunity to address the opening of COP31. This is the first COP held in Türkiye, and I thank our hosts for their warm welcome and exemplary hospitality. Türkiye already demonstrated this by hosting the first plenary session of the current IPCC cycle in Istanbul in January 2024. Implementation is a key theme of this COP. But climate action without climate science is like a ship without a rudder. Robust evidence and comprehensive findings such as those provided by IPCC can steer effective climate action. It is no secret that the IPCC faces operational challenges and reputational risks from the current impasse on the timeline for our three Working Group reports, which I will return to. But we continue to deliver on our mandate to assess the ever-growing body of knowledge on the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how climate action can reduce those risks. Our findings, especially those on response options, stand the test of time and are as implementable today as they were yesterday and will be tomorrow. And we do have a well-established relationship with the UNFCCC. Actions in support of the UNFCCC processes are mentioned in the very first paragraph of the principles governing IPCC work. As well as communicating the findings of approved reports, IPCC authors have engaged with and contributed across many UNFCCC processes, for example through the two periodic reviews and the first Global Stocktake. So am very pleased to report that IPCC’s scientific engine room is humming with activity. We plan to publish the first three reports of the current assessment cycle next year. In March, we will hold an approval session for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, followed later in the year by approval sessions for two Methodology Reports, which provide the basis for governments to report their emissions and removals of greenhouse gases to the UNFCCC. These two reports cover Short-Lived Climate Forcers and Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage. Our three Working Groups are also making significant progress. Authors from Working Group I, covering the physical science basis, met last week in Tanzania and are revising their draft report for government and expert review. I have heard very encouraging reports of their progress and I do encourage all governments to provide comments to these reports which are of great value. The Expert Review of the Working Group II report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, along with revised and updated Technical Guidelines on assessing impacts and adaptation, will conclude on 4 December. And Working Group III on mitigation will open its Expert Review next Monday. Distinguished delegates, We owe a huge debt to our authors. They take time, on a voluntary basis, out of their busy professional and private lives to contribute to IPCC activities. They need to balance multiple responsibilities and are finding it increasingly difficult to do so in the absence of an agreed work schedule. In my earlier days in IPCC, we could plan our meetings literally years ahead. Now our authors do not know what is expected of them in the early months of 2027. The IPCC will resume its suspended 65th Plenary on 1 December, where member governments must aim to reach a so far elusive decision on the timeline for the Seventh Assessment Report and the related budget for 2027 and beyond. I encourage you to use your influence here to prepare for a successful outcome. With that, I wish you all constructive and fruitful discussions in Antalya. I look forward to meeting many of you during COP31. Thank you.