Dr. Hoesung Lee, IPCC Chair
Petteri Taalas, Secretary General, WMO
Representatives from UNFCCC
IPCC Focal Points and Scientists
In recent years, particularly in 2022, many of the IPCC’s warnings have come true. I am sure many wish your projections were wrong. But they are not. The importance of acting on climate change and the wider triple planetary crisis – which also includes the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss and the crisis of pollution and waste – has never been clearer.
The IPCC has contributed to broadening the global understanding of the triple crisis. Your science has guided the world in its many commitments and action plans – including informing the recently agreed right to a safe and healthy environment, a right which has now been accepted as a basic human right and which is therefore poised to make a big difference.
With such a sound body of work behind it, the IPCC has a huge asset: credibility. When the IPCC speaks, people listen and act. The IPCC must keep speaking, through strong and timely science, to guide the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
This is what you have done in the latest cycle. You have successfully finalized three Assessment reports, in challenging circumstances. You have highlighted the magnitude of climate impacts and the urgent need for action at COP26 in Glasgow, and more recently, during the Bonn sessions. I congratulate you.
We at UNEP look forward to the last step of the cycle: the finalization and approval of the synthesis report. Countries need the IPCC to guide them as they move deeper into the action phase of tackling climate change. The seventh cycle will be crucial.
As you move into the next cycle, please know that UNEP is fully behind the IPCC. We were very pleased back in 2019, to be engaging with the IPCC Secretariat with a view to host the next IPCC meeting here in beautiful Nairobi. COVID-19 has other plans. So now, we at UNEP are again extending a warm invitation to Nairobi and offering our facilities for the session following the approval of the synthesis report next year. I have asked the director of UNEP’s science division, Jian Liu, to liaise with the secretariat in this regard.
I wish you all a successful 57th session and hope I will be able to welcome you to Nairobi soon.
Thank you.
