The IPCC Assessment Process
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), comprising 195 member countries is the leading world body for assessing the science related to climate change, its impacts and potential future risks, and possible response options. Through its assessments, the IPCC determines the state of knowledge on climate change. It identities where there is agreement in the scientific community, and where further research is needed. The assessment reports are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. The reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency. The IPCC does not conduct its own research. IPCC reports are neutral, policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive. The authors, nominated by the member governments are selected through a careful process that aims to reflect the range of scientific, technical and socio-economic expertise and to strike a good balance in terms of gender, geographical representation, and representation of experts from developing, developed and countries with economies in transition. Using the example of the much deliberated IPCC Report on the ‘Global Warming of 1.5 Degrees C’, the seminar will
i. give an exposure to the global assessment process and
ii. Identify emerging areas of interest for the policymakers and the research community.
About Speakers:
Minal Pathak works as a Senior Scientist with the Technical Support Unit of Working Group III (Mitigation) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Professor Pathak holds a PhD and MSc in Environmental Science. She is a Visiting Researcher at Imperial College London and has held visiting scholar positions at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru.
Renee van Diemen works as a Scientist at the Working Group III Technical Support Unit of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC). She holds an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London, where she specialised in energy policy. She studied Mandarin Chinese at Fudan University in Shanghai and hold a BA in International Relations and Economics from Loughborough University.
