IPCC opens 65th session in Ethiopia, seeks agreement on timelines for Seventh Assessment Report – EnviroNews

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The Sixty-Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began on Monday, October 12, 2026, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. IPCC member governments are meeting till October 16 to advance the IPCC work planned for the seventh assessment cycle.

The Panel’s agenda for this session includes several important topics, led by a discussion of the timelines for the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report.

With the Working Groups having completed first drafts of their respective contributions to AR7, IPCC Chair Jim Skea stressed at the opening of the Plenary this afternoon the importance of the Panel reaching a decision on timelines for the authors of the three Working Group reports, who volunteer their time and expertise on the IPCC reports.

“The Panel will revisit this week the topic of timelines for the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report. This remains a critical gap, one the Panel has signalled in the last Plenary that it is keen to bridge and close”, said IPCC Chair, Jim Skea.

During the five-day meeting, the IPCC member governments will also discuss the IPCC Trust Fund program and budget and the role of Artificial Intelligence in IPCC processes. The Panel will also consider the admission of new observer organisations and will receive progress reports from all parts of the IPCC, along with updates on key activities.

Ethiopia’s Minister of Energy and Water, Habtamu Itefa Geleta, and the IPCC Chair, Jim Skea, welcomed delegates from member governments and observer organisations at the opening ceremony held this afternoon at the newly inaugurated Ethiopian Meteorological Institute.

The opening also included screening of the video addresses by Celeste Saulo, the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of UN Environment Programme, and Simon Stiell, the Executive Director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.