Climate panel deadlock: Skea wants swift end to row over next report's timetable
After talks broke down in Addis Ababa, IPCC chair Jim Skea wants to reconvene the plenary soon. Saudi Arabia, India and China want the report delayed to 2029.
Archive image · Photo: oscepa / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
The chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Jim Skea, wants to reconvene the panel's plenary session of governments "at the earliest opportunity". He said so on Monday, 19 October, AFP reported. Talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, were suspended late on Friday after a week of negotiations; the meeting overran its scheduled close and many delegations – especially from small nations most vulnerable to climate change – had to leave early.
The dispute is over the timetable for the next major assessment report. Many of the nearly 200 member countries want it ready before the second Global Stocktake at the 2028 UN climate summit, which will assess progress on cutting emissions. Saudi Arabia, India and China argued for more time to include data from developing nations and proposed 2029. The budget also remains open; there was agreement on many issues, including artificial intelligence.
In an open letter, 117 scientists working on the report said they would keep working: "An assessment that arrives after the decisions it is meant to inform cannot serve its purpose." Skea stressed that reaching consensus on the schedule was "vital" and that all countries must be able to participate fully. Founded in 1988, the IPCC typically publishes its reports every five to seven years; the work is done voluntarily by thousands of scientists.