The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the German IPCC Coordination Office

As a high-profile instrument for scientific policy advice, the IPCC illustrates the relevance of climate change research for politics, society and the economy: scientific information plays a crucial role in acknowledging global climate change as a problem, understanding its causes, and pointing to innovative solutions.

The IPCC is both a scientific body as well as an intergovernmental institution. On its behalf, thousands of scientists worldwide collect and assess the results of research on climate change.

The IPCC's main products are its Assessment Reports. Most recently, the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) was produced.

It states without doubt: Climate change is detectable in all regions worldwide and has been caused by human activities. It also shows that climate change has progressed faster in recent decades than before.

The report also makes clear that human-induced climate change has had significant negative impacts for ecosystems and humans in all regions for decades, and that continued climate change would further increase many risks and may lead to unprecedented impacts. The IPCC identifies ways in which humanity can mitigate climate change and its risks, or adapt to unavoidable impacts and damages.

Despite progress since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise. The Sixth IPCC Assessment Report shows: Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to the UNFCCC by early October 2021 would not limit warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Even to stay below 2 °C global warming would require an abrupt, very large increase in these efforts from 2030. The report also shows what mitigation options exist in all sectors and assesses their potential and costs.

In addition to the AR6, the IPCC has produced three Special Reports on "1.5 °C Global Warming" (SR1.5), "Climate Change and Land" (SRCCL) and "Ocean and Cryosphere" (SROCC) in the sixth reporting cycle, which was completed in mid-2023, and supplemented a Refinement to the 2006 Methodology Report (MR2019).

A synthesis report summarizes the main messages from all the reports in this cycle.

55 experts from Germany were members of the writing teams for the reports of the IPCC's sixth assessment cycle. In addition, numerous others were involved in peer review and scientific quality control. The BMBF welcomes the commitment of researchers from Germany and all over the world who do not receive additional payment for this work.

The seventh reporting cycle was launched in July 2023 with the election of the new IPCC Board. It was decided to prepare the following reports for this cycle:

• Special Report on "Climate Change and Cities"
• Methodology Report on Short-Lived Climate Forcers
• Methodology Report on the Inventory of Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CDR, CCU/S)
• Seventh IPCC Assessment Report (AR7) consisting of:
  • Contribution from Working Group 1: "The Physical Science Basis"
  • Contribution from Working Group 2: "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability", combined with a separate report section on "Methods for assessing adaptation" (update of the IPCC Technical guidelines on impacts and adaptation incl. adaptation indicators, metrics and methodologies from 1994)
  • Contribution of Working Group 3: "Mitigation of Climate Change"
• Synthesis report of the seventh reporting cycle.

The IPCC process provides a reliable scientific basis for national and international climate policy. The BMBF supports this unique risk monitor for a knowledge-based precautionary policy on climate change in many ways:

• Over the past ten years, around 600 million euros were invested in climate research programmes: in direct support of the IPCC process, for example for model runs and infrastructure, as well as in research projects the results of which are or will be included in reports of the current assessment cycle. This continuity and the extent of climate research funding by the BMBF has enabled science in Germany to contribute significantly to the IPCC Assessment Reports and Special Reports.
• The BMBF is also committed to quality assurance by providing scientific assistants to the German Coordinating Lead Authors of the IPCC reports. During the sixth assessment cycle, the BMBF provided financial support to the Technical Support Unit of IPCC Working Group II on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (based at the Alfred Wegener Institute, AWI, co-chair: Prof. Hans-Otto Pörtner). For AR5, the BMBF already financed the Technical Support Unit of IPCC Working Group III on Mitigation (based at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, PIK, then co-chair: Prof. Ottmar Edenhofer) from 2010-2015.
• Together with the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt, AA), the BMBF regularly organises dialogues on the IPCC process as well as the findings of the IPCC reports. These dialogues serve as a platform for political and societal exchange on concepts for action and research gaps.

German IPCC Coordination Office - interface between science and government in the field of climate change

Together with the BMUB (now BMUV), the BMBF established the German IPCC Coordination Office at the DLR Project Management Agency in 1998. In course of governmental reorganization, responsibility for IPCC matters was transferred from BMUV to the Federal Foreign Office (AA). The German IPCC Coordination Office acts as a national contact point for researchers, government, authorities, the public and the media on questions relating to the IPCC and promotes the integration of the results of German research groups into the international stocktaking on climate change. As a service provider, the Coordination Office advises the German government on IPCC matters and helps to strengthen the IPCC as an institution and ensure the quality of its reports. More information can be found on the De-IPCC website.