Why have countries been pushing for a vital global climate report to be delayed? — SkimNews
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- IPCC suspended its Addis Ababa meeting Friday without setting a launch date for AR7, the seventh assessment report originally expected in 2028, seven years after the last report in 2021.
- Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, China and Kenya are pushing to delay publication until 2029 or later, arguing climate science is dominated by developed countries and skews its findings accordingly.
- Critics note Saudi Arabia has a history of obstructing climate action — including seeking to water down previous IPCC reports — and has employees of its oil company and scientists with oil links on IPCC committees.
- A delay risks AR7 missing the 2028 global stocktake, the Paris agreement milestone when governments' emissions pledges are scrutinized for alignment with the 1.5C warming limit.
- One proposed compromise would keep the 2028 deadline for the physical science portion of the report while allowing later-delayed parts on impacts and solutions, alongside new efforts to broaden developing-country participation.
- 117 scientists, many from developing countries including several in China and one in India, issued an open letter vowing to push ahead with their work and noting their evidence base already includes global-south literature and Indigenous knowledge.
- The fight is set to resurface at Cop31 in Turkey next month, where governments face questions about climate urgency amid warnings of a strong El Niño compounded by global heating.
Why it matters: Under the Paris timeline, the 2028 IPCC report was designed to supply the scientific baseline for the second global stocktake — when governments' emissions pledges get checked against the 1.5C limit. With Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, China and Kenya demanding a delay, oil-producing and emerging economies now have a formal lever to slow the science feeding directly into global climate policy.
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