April 30, 2018. Filipino scientists and members of the Climate Change Commission’s National Panel of Technical Experts (CCC-NPTE) are set to contribute to one of the most important global reports on climate change to be published in 2022. 

Dr. Rodel Lasco, Dr. Rosa Perez, and Dr. John Pulhin are among the 721 experts representing 90 countries invited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to serve as coordinating lead authors and review editors for its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).

The IPCC is the foremost intergovernmental body established to assess the science related to climate change. As key input into international climate negotiations, IPCC assessment reports provide governments with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts.

The conclusions of the AR6 cycle will be available in time for the Paris Agreement’s first Global Stocktake, a periodic review of collective progress towards achieving the agreement’s long-term goal of limiting global temperature rise at 1.5° C above pre-industrial temperature levels—the global warming threshold for vulnerable countries like the Philippines to survive and thrive.

CCC Vice Chairperson and Secretary Emmanuel De Guzman lauded the NPTE members for being selected from a total of 2858 nominated experts representing 105 countries.

“The designation of our NPTE members as lead IPCC authors will provide the report with a much-needed perspective from vulnerable countries like the Philippines,” De Guzman said.

“The IPCC has always hoped that more scientists from developing countries and more women scientists will be nominated and invited as IPCC authors to achieve more diversity," he added.

According to the IPCC, 44 percent of the selected authors for AR6 represent developing countries and countries with economies in transition and 33 percent are women.

“This is not the first time for Filipino climate experts to lend their expertise to IPCC publications. Our three AR6 authors, together with NPTE members Dr. Felino Lansigan and Ms. Lourdes Tibig, have contributed to the previous IPCC assessment report,” De Guzman shared.

Following their selection, AR6 authors are now set to review the existing scientific literature and prepare drafts based on the outlines of the Working Group contributions agreed upon by the IPCC during its 46th session in Montreal in September 2017.

The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II, dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III, dealing with the mitigation of climate change.

Lasco will be the coordinating lead author of the Working Group II’s Chapter 2, which will focus on food, fibre, and other ecosystem products.

Perez and Pulhin, on the other hand, will be the lead authors of Working Group II’s Chapters 10 (Asia) and 18 (Climate Resilient Development Pathways), respectively.