Hello (again) from Working Group II! 👋🏼

Here's our final 🌸 mini interview with authors 🌸 to get a glimpse of what it really means to be an IPCC author. As we are closing the AR7 author nominations, we wanted to extend biggest thank yous to the team at Future Earth for working with us to put this together.

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Today, we have past author from AR6 Working Group III, Ninan Karachepone, who is an ecological economist and Chairperson of the Centre for Economics, Environment and Society, Bangalore, India. Karachepone shares their reflections on what it was like to have Covid disrupt the tail-end of their report writing process, and navigating author team dynamics. We also have Prof Govindasamy Bala, Lead Author in AR5 and AR6 and Professor at the Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science who shares some words of encouragement. Read on below!

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Plus, don't forget our call for author nominations for the 7th Assessment Report (AR7) closing on 17 April 2025!

Karachepone on navigating a 'Covid' impacted IPCC report cycle 😷, how authors work on reports and collaborate 📘 ⤵️

How did you first get involved as an author? How is it different from your day-to-day?

Based on my expertise, accomplishments and publication record, I was selected as a Lead Author for Chapter 07 (Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses) of Working Group III Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the IPCC taking place in 2019-2022. It gave me an opportunity to connect and work with leading climate experts from around the world. Participation in a global assessment is different from other types of assessments done at national or local levels since one must work with a global team of authors from different countries, regions, disciplines and cultures. IPCC reports guide governments in framing their climate policies and climate actions.

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Is it true that this is a big undertaking? How did you manage your role as an author with your day-to-day responsibilities?

Yes, this is a big assignment since for each Working Group, one must work with an average of around 250 to 300 authors from around the world representing different disciplines, expertise and cultures. You also get the opportunity to familiarise with the processes of intergovernmental bodies such as the IPCC and learn the art and skills of drafting the assessment reports. When one consents to be nominated as an author for the IPCC assessment one commits to allocate adequate time to draft the different versions of the report, respond to reviewer comments and adhere to the approved timelines for submission of the assessment report.

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What are some of the challenges of being an IPCC author?

One of the problems I faced as an author from a developing country was the lack of ready access to many journal articles since there was a paywall to access them. However, the IPCC arranges for us to get access to such articles, and our colleagues from developed countries on request kindly shared such articles from their library. The sixth assessment cycle also coincided with the Covid pandemic and the third and fourth author meetings could not be held physically which had its own challenges. Having a discussion through an online meeting of 250-300 participants has its own challenges and limitations.

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This is a massive report and author teams are diverse. How do authors work together to decide what goes into the final report?

At the First Lead Author Meeting (LAM1), the authors of respective chapters discuss the agreed outline of each chapter and word count limit. Then authors volunteer or are requested to write different sections of the chapter depending upon their expertise, interest, etc. The IPCC assessment report involves drafting the zero-order, first, second and third order drafts of the respective chapters and finally, the final report. These drafts are revised based on the feedback from the IPCC Bureau, reviewer comments from governments and individual experts, and discussion in author meetings and offline/online meetings of individual chapters.

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There is so much literature out there, how do author teams figure out what makes it to the final report and also plug expertise and research gaps?

There is voluminous literature on climate change and related themes. Authors, therefore, need to do a focussed search for relevant books/reports/articles for the sections that they are drafting and as far as possible use the latest research and evidence to write their respective sections. Gaps in expertise for drafting the IPCC reports are addressed by inviting additional authors with the requisite expertise or by engaging specialist contributing authors. While inviting new or contributing authors, care is taken to keep a balance in terms of a geographical representation of authors, expertise and gender.

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What are the highlights of being an IPCC author? Any fun anecdotes?

Being selected as an IPCC author is considered a great honour since authors are selected competitively from among several applications from around the world. IPCC authors can build networks with climate experts from around the world, upgrade their knowledge and skills with the latest research and tools, and share their notes with other experts. Our third and fourth author meetings could not be held in person due to the Covid pandemic and we were forced to revert to online author meetings. Because of work from home requirements due to covid some authors found it challenging to participate in the online meetings and simultaneously take care of their little children who would cry for attention from their author parent.

Some words of encouragement from
Prof Govindasamy Bala, Lead Author in AR5 and AR6.

It is an incredible honor and privilege to be an IPCC author as you become part of a galaxy of amazing climate scientists from around the world. The diversity of scientists, team effort, consensus, transparency, and high-quality science are the hallmarks of IPCC work. I enjoyed attending the IPCC meetings as I could get updates on the latest developments and progress in climate science in a relatively short period. At present, I believe the IPCC assessment is the biggest international collaborative scientific exercise, and no other scientific discipline has a collaborative exercise on such a massive scale. Indeed, I am proud to be a Lead Author in the 5^th and 6^th Assessment Reports.

We have concluded all our webinars for the IPCC AR7 nomination cycle! However, if you'd like to check out deep dive videos of the Working Group outlines, understand how nominations are done, and also other details, check out the link in this next section!

Curious about the nomination process?

We know it can be confusing so we put together a list of links that you need to know about the process of being nominated, what to expect, how to get nominated and more.

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Progress of our reports 🗓️

Working Group II contributions to the 7th Assessment Report ​ Where we are at 👉 Call for nominations of AR7 authors from 7 March 2025 to 17 April 2025, midnight CEST ​ Up next 👉 Selection of authors

​ ​ Special Report on Climate Change and Cities (SR Cities) ​ Where we are at 👉 First Lead Author Meeting (LAM1) just concluded on 14 March 2025 ​ Up next 👉 Second Lead Author Meeting (LAM2) in July 2025

The IPCC Working Group II update is an independent effort of the IPCC Working Group II Technical Support Unit meant to provide informal updates about the work of the Working Group and should not be taken as official communications from the IPCC. If you would like to reach out to the IPCC, please get in touch with the media contacts at the IPCC Secretariat (ipcc-media@wmo.int) or Working Group II (media@ipccwg2.org).

IPCC Working Group II Update #11 | 15 April 2025