The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) have announced access to the full library of AGU Publications for IPCC authors working on the Panel’s Seventh Assessment Report, or AR7.
“This landmark decision is an invaluable scientific boost for the IPCC’s ongoing work,” said IPCC Chair Jim Skea. “It will enable our authors from developing countries and those facing access barriers to enhance their scientific contributions to the upcoming reports of IPCC’s three Working Groups assessing the latest science related to climate change. We encourage other major scientific publishers to consider following suit at this critical time for climate science.”
As a non-profit scholarly publisher, AGU publishes 24 peer-reviewed high-impact journals and four active book series, including monographs, advanced-level textbooks, and technical manuals across the entire spectrum of Earth and space sciences. It also runs the Earth and Space Science Open Archive.
AGU journals publish research articles, letters, commentaries and other types of scholarly content within the fields of Earth and space sciences. Covering topics ranging from atmospheric science and oceanography to geophysics, planetary science, and climate change, AGU journals are an essential mode of information sharing and enterprise building for the global scientific community.
“IPCC Reports provide authoritative scientific consensus on climate change to a broad spectrum of key players, from government and community leaders to industries and advocacy organizations,” said AGU President Brandon Jones. “Opening AGU publications’ portfolio to the authors of the Seventh Assessment Report provides greater equitable access to critical research of the scientific community, which can be assessed, considered, and weighed when informing the final report.”
Following the Panel’s agreement in February on the outlines of the three Working Group contributions during its 62nd Session held in Hangzhou, China, the IPCC has now completed the call for nominations of experts to act as Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors, or Review Editors for the three key Working Group contributions to IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report.
Hundreds of experts in different scientific domains worldwide will be selected to volunteer their time and expertise to produce the new set of IPCC Reports. Author teams will reflect a range of scientific, technical, and socio-economic knowledge. Coordinating Lead Authors and Lead Authors will be responsible for drafting the different chapters of the Working Group contributions to the AR7 and, with the help of the Review Editors, revising those based on comments submitted during the two rounds of reviews by experts and governments.
IPCC author teams include experts from different regions to ensure geographic balance. The IPCC also seeks a balance in gender, as well as a balance between those authors with experience in working on IPCC Reports and those new to the process, including younger scientists.
The outlines of the three Working Group contributions to the AR7 were developed after a comprehensive scientific scoping meeting in December 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, before the Panel considered them and agreed upon them at the end of February.