The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began its Sixty‑fourth Plenary Session at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026.
Nearly 300 delegates representing IPCC member governments and observer organisations from around the world gathered to advance IPCC’s planned work in the seventh assessment cycle. The session is scheduled from March 24 to 27, 2026.
A key agenda item for this Session is the review of the Principles and Procedures that govern the work of the IPCC, which are subject to review every five years.
With the Panel now more than two and a half years into the seventh assessment cycle, IPCC Chair, Jim Skea, invited member governments to initiate this review at this plenary session and strengthen how the IPCC conducts its business.
“The principles and procedures governing our work are vital in safeguarding IPCC’s ability to deliver comprehensive, neutral, objective, transparent, inclusive, and scientifically robust assessments,” said IPCC Chair Jim Skea during his opening remarks. “The Panel can seize the opportunity presented at this plenary to give this important matter its full and undivided attention,” he added.
During the four-day meeting, the Panel will also discuss raising funds for the IPCC Trust Fund, the work programme of its Task Group for Data Support for Climate Change Assessments, and will consider new observer organisations, among other items. The Panel will also receive progress updates from different parts of the IPCC and various products of the seventh assessment cycle.
The IPCC’s seventh assessment cycle formally began in July 2023 and will culminate in the release of the Synthesis Report to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) in 2029. In this cycle, the IPCC will prepare the AR7, comprising three Working Group contributions and a Synthesis Report, and update the 1994 Technical Guidelines for Assessing Climate Change Impact and Adaptation.
The Panel will also produce a Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, the Methodology Report on Short-Lived Climate Forcers and the Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage.
During the opening ceremony, delegates were welcomed by the Permanent Secretary of Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Raweewan Bhuridej. The Plenary was also addressed by the IPCC Chair Jim Skea and the Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation, Ko Barrett.
The opening ceremony also included video messages from Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, and Simon Stiell, the Executive Director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.