Regarding the Publication of the Working Group II Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Ministry of the Environment (MOE)

The 55^th Session of the IPCC and 12^th Session of Working Group II (WGII) were held online from February 14 to February 27, 2022. At those sessions, the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the WGII contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) (hereinafter, "WGII AR6 Report") was approved, and the main report and other related documents were accepted.

Outline

The 55^th Session of the IPCC and 12^th Session of WGII were held online from February 14 to February 27, 2022, and for the first time in eight years since the approval of the SPM of the WGII contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014, the SPM of the WGII AR6 Report was approved, and the main report and its attachments were accepted.

The IPCC published the SPM of the WGII AR6 Report at 8:00 p.m. on February 28 (JST). The main report and other related documents will be disclosed to the public by the IPCC in or around July 2022 after editing and other necessary processes are carried out based on the results of the discussions at the plenary session.

Outline of the 55^th Session of the IPCC and 12^th Session of Working Group II

Period: 13 days from February 14 to February 27, 2022 (except for Sunday, February 20)

Venue: Online

Participants: More than 400 people, including delegates from the national governments and representatives of the WMO, UNEP, and other international organizations; a total of 18 people attended the sessions from Japan, including those from MEXT, MAFF, the Forestry Agency, METI, the JMA and the MOE.

In Japan, for the creation of the report, the related governmental ministries and agencies organized a domestic liaison group to work with the IPCC to support the report-related activities. As shown in the attached document, the WGII AR6 Report includes a number of citations from Japanese research papers and 9 Japanese scientists are named in the list of its authors. The Japanese government has also proactively contributed to the creation of the report through the government review and discussions at the plenary sessions.

The report summarizes the latest scientific findings on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. The SPM states that "Human-induced climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme events, has caused widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people, beyond natural climate variability."

Future schedule

The Japanese government will translate the approved SPM of the WGII AR6 Report into Japanese and publish the translation on the MOE's website in or around late March.

The IPCC plans for the approval and acceptance of the Working Group III (mitigation of climate change) contribution to the AR6 and the Synthesis Report as detailed below.

At the 56^th session held in April 2022:

Approval and acceptance of the report on the Working Group III contribution to the AR6