Hello (again) from Working Group II! 👋🏼

We are back again with our 🌸 mini interviews with authors 🌸 to get a glimpse of what it really means to be an IPCC author. This time, we are working with Future Earth to feature their past lead authors who've been a part of the IPCC.

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Today, we have past authors from AR6 Working Group II, Md Arfan Uzzaman who is the International GEF Programme Specialist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, and Professor Shin-ichi Ito who is a Professor at the University of Tokyo. They share honestly their struggles as authors and what kept them motivated. Read on.

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

Arfan and Shin-ichi reflect on the realities of IPCC work 💼 , juggling IPCC authorship and the day-to-day 🕦 and why it still matters to be an author ☀️ ⤵️

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

🟢 Arfan: It was a mixed experience. IPCC work is massive and requires tremendous time and effort. It was difficult for me to balance IPCC work and my regular work. Sometimes, I need to sacrifice my family life when deadlines come.

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🔵 Shin-ichi: I was nominated by an international scientific organization because I have studied about climate change impacts on marine ecosystems. My daily tasks are education and research focusing on climate impacts on marine ecosystems. IPCC work was mainly to review, not really to study by myself.

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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?

🟢 Arfan: It’s a big work, indeed. For me, my employer’s workload was not lessened by my IPCC authorship. I typically worked on IPCC activities after office hours and over the weekends.

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🔵 Shin-ichi: Yes, Is it true that this is a big task. It was very hard to generate time to work on AR6 on weekdays which meant I worked on weekends into the late nights & early mornings.

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

🟢 Arfan: Very limited support from employer, limited subscriptions in non-open access journals, and reduced space for work-life balance.

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🔵 Shin-ichi: The deadline of each part of the process is very strict. In addition, the work involved restoring the information history of how the references can be trustable and why I made the confidence levels. In addition, I also had to check new papers and work outside of one's own expertise.

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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?

🟢 Arfan: The regular meeting was helpful. Our chapter team opened a communication channel in Slack, and we organized bi-weekly online meetings, which helped to fast track the progress, avoid overlapping, share ideas, and go through the content collectively to finalize the report. We also allocated different sub-sections to authors based on the expertise and individual’s comparative advantage.

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🔵 Shin-ichi: It requires repeated discussions. Even if a draft seems complete for a section, one new published paper could change the total structure of the section, and hence influence the whole chapter, then other chapters. Repeating the feedback process was essential.

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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?

🟢 Arfan: We prioritized literature by assessing its relevance, credibility, and alignment with the report’s agreed structure. We identified research and expertise gaps through systematic reviews and consultations with experts. More specifically, we used different set of key words to find the more appropriate articles. We methodically classified the articles from multiple perspectives and used them as evidence for the table, figures, and confidence statement. The job was difficult because some of the authors did not have subscriptions to certain journals.

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🔵 Shin-ichi: Based on the quality and quantity of data, we ranked the confidence level of the results of papers, which mean high confidence papers were selected. In the meantime, new emerging issues and ideas which seemed important for natural systems and human society were also selected with careful considerations.

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

🟢 Arfan: It provides a better platform to collaborate and conduct climate-relevant assessments and knowledge generation. However, IPCC shall upgrade the online author’s profile, highlighting their education, expertise, affiliation, pictures, and LinkedIn profile to increase visibility and recognition.

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🔵 Shin-ichi: Being an IPCC author, you extend one's view for the earth, and then one's own life. It will help people be tolerant of various ideas and accept many people, which I believe will lead to peace of the world itself.

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Why was it important to be an IPCC author?

🟢 Arfan: It offers recognition, multidisciplinary collaboration, and excellent learning and sharing opportunities.

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🔵 Shin-ichi: Now the earth and human beings are facing the most important period. Depending on our decision, the level of "Climate Resilient Development" will change. We must contribute to future "Climate Resilient Development" for next generations.

Here are some of the introduction seminars that our IPCC Co-Chairs and Vice-Chairs are involved in for you to check out. We'd strongly encourage you to join us. Sign up now and don't miss it!

North Africa event on 9 April 2025 (online)

To those based in North Africa, this outreach event provides an opportunity to engage with leading climate scientists and IPCC contributors to learn about the role of IPCC, the upcoming 7th Assessment Report (AR7) and how North African experts can contribute to shaping global climate knowledge. RSVP below. RSVP here

West Africa event on 9 April 2025 in French (online)

Webinaire d'information du 7eme cycle d'evaluation du GIEC. RSVP here

Below are events and calls by other organisations that we are aware of but not involved in:

MRI event on 9 April 2025 (online)

In this information webinar, the Mountain Research Initiative presents a brief overview of the IPCC AR7 and share some insights and advice on how to get involved in and contribute to the AR7 assessment, including lessons learnt from the the previous assessment (AR6). In this webinar, we specifically take a “mountains lens” perspective to highlight opportunities for mountain-specific inputs, plus share some tips and recommendations for the nomination process and beyond. Register below. RSVP here

ISC's call for author nominations (online)

Please check out International Science Council's call for author nominations for the IPCC AR7 on their website below. Read here

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 #9 | 9 April 2025