Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair Jim Skea said Oct. 19 he would resume talks after a deadline dispute put three major reports’ availability for a 2028 climate review in doubt.
The panel’s Oct. 12-16 session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, ended without a timetable for its Working Group reports or approval of its 2027 budget. The reports cover climate science, impacts and adaptation, and mitigation, or ways to reduce emissions. Many governments want the findings ready before the Paris Agreement’s second global stocktake concludes in November 2028. The review of collective climate progress is scheduled to begin in November 2026.
Many delegations favored completing all three reports in 2028. Saudi Arabia, India and other countries sought 2029 release dates for the reports on impacts and adaptation and on mitigation, arguing that more time would allow fuller contributions and review from developing countries.
Negotiators reduced seven proposed schedules to four but reached no agreement, according to Earth Negotiations Bulletin’s record of the meeting. The timing of reviews and meetings also affects costs, leaving the spending plan unsettled. The record identified travel support for authors from countries with limited resources as a particular concern.
The session ran beyond its planned closing time, and some delegations had departed before Skea suspended it, the IPCC said. Skea said countries needed a full opportunity to participate when negotiations resumed, particularly smaller nations vulnerable to climate change. He pledged to reconvene the panel as soon as possible.
The disagreement has persisted through IPCC meetings since 2024. Major panel decisions require consensus, leaving both the report schedule and budget unresolved while governments remain divided.
In an open letter published Oct. 19, 117 scientists working on the assessments told governments, “we will keep working.” They urged governments to make the reports available before the stocktake concludes so the findings can inform its decisions. The IPCC has not set a date for the resumed session.
