Following a six-month delay, the IPCC brought its sixth assessment cycle to a close at its 58th session. During this meeting, the Panel undertook a line-by-line review of its final product: the synthesis of its Sixth Assessment Report.

The current IPCC assessment cycle was longer than expected, due in part to the global disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, changes to the staffing of the Synthesis Report Technical Support Unit earlier this year led to a revised timeline for the report’s production, prolonging this already lengthy cycle by another six months.

The Synthesis Report integrated findings from the assessment reports produced by each of the three Working Groups: WGI: The Physical Science Basis; WGII: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability; and WGIII: Mitigation of Climate Change. The Synthesis Report also reflected elements of the three Special Reports produced during this cycle: Global Warming of 1.5°C; Climate Change and Land; and The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.

The Synthesis Report provided an overview of the state of knowledge on the science of climate change and highlighted new findings since the publication of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report in 2014. As the report is designed to be a resource for policymakers, it was written in a non-technical style that is accessible to non-scientists. It addressed policy-relevant questions approved by the Panel without prescribing policy responses. The report will inform the 2023 Global Stocktake under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

Established in 1988, the IPCC is made up of 195 governments that are members of the United Nations or the World Meteorological Organization. The Panel provides governments with scientific information that can be used to create climate policies and provides input into multilateral climate change negotiations. Since its inception, the Panel has prepared a series of comprehensive assessment reports and special reports that provide scientific information on climate change to the international community. Its reports are based on the work of thousands of experts who volunteer as IPCC authors.

IPCC-58 was held in Interlaken, Switzerland, from 13-17 March 2023.