Communications in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report cycle

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been renewing its communications activities in the current assessment cycle, building on the innovations that underpinned the Fifth Assessment Report. An Expert Meeting on Communication in Oslo in 2016 sought to compile and discuss the lessons learnt during Fifth Assessment Report and inform the Communications Strategies for the Sixth Assessment Report (The overall Communications Strategy is adopted by the IPCC. Individual communications strategies for the various reports are signed off by the Chair and respective Co-Chairs.) This article describes the progress made, in the context of the IPCC’s communications goals and specific challenges. Developments in the current cycle include a more systematic approach to developing key statements to communicate the findings of the reports. The IPCC has expanded the number and geographic range of its outreach activities, targeting interested stakeholders beyond the core audience of policymakers. Communications work was strengthened by reinforcing the Working Group Technical Support Units, which support the author teams, with communications specialists. The first product in this cycle, the 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C, was by some measures the most influential report on climate change to date. It attracted enormous media coverage, transforming and galvanizing public interest in global warming. With the two subsequent special reports in 2019 on land and the ocean and cryosphere, this has focused attention and scrutiny on the IPCC. The latest report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, was released in August 2021 and broke all records for coverage of an IPCC report. This makes effective communication all the more important, for the remainder of the current cycle due for completion in 2022 and beyond.