IPCC

Lecturer of Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara has been selected as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change United Nations expert reviewers

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the objective of the IPCC is to provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC reports are also a key input into international climate change negotiations. The IPCC is an organization of governments that are members of the United Nations or WMO. The IPCC currently has 195 members. Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks. An open and transparent review by experts and governments around the world is an essential part of the IPCC process, to ensure an objective and complete assessment and to reflect a diverse range of views and expertise. Through its assessments, the IPCC identifies the strength of scientific agreement in different areas and indicates where further research is needed. The IPCC does not conduct its own research.

The IPCC is divided into three Working Groups and a Task Force. Working Group I deals with The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change, Working Group II with Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability and Working Group III with Mitigation of Climate Change. The main objective of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories is to develop and refine a methodology for the calculation and reporting of national greenhouse gas emissions and removals. Alongside the Working Groups and the Task Force, other Task Groups may be established by the Panel for a set time period to consider a specific topic or question. One example is the decision at the 47th Session of the IPCC in Paris in March 2018 to establish a Task Group to improve gender balance and address gender-related issues within the IPCC. That Task Group completed its work and their work was fundamental to the Panel adopting and Gender Policy and Implementation Plan. “Review is an essential part of the IPCC process. Since the IPCC is an intergovernmental body, review of IPCC documents should involve both peer review by experts and review by governments.”1 Every IPCC report goes through several drafts and reviews to ensure it is as robust, comprehensive and balanced as possible. The review process is critical for ensuring the assessment is scientifically rigorous, exhaustive, objective and transparent; broad participation in the IPCC review process is one of the core strengths of IPCC assessments. The First-Order Draft is open to review by experts; the Second-Order Draft is reviewed by governments and experts. During the Final Government Distribution, governments send comments on the Summary for Policymakers, and the Overview Chapter in the case of a Methodology Report. The Synthesis Report draft undergoes a single simultaneous government and expert review followed by a government review of the final draft. All review comments submitted by experts or governments are addressed by the authors. The comments and author responses, together with the drafts, are published after the report is finalized.

Expert reviewers may submit comments on one sentence or section of a report, or a whole chapter of the full report. They may consider scientific substance or the structure of the report. Often they will point out a published paper that the report authors may not have included in their assessment, but which could be relevant. Expert reviewers agree not to cite, quote or distribute the draft, because at this stage the report is still a work in progress and has not yet been formally considered by the IPCC. They must submit their comments through the dedicated web portal. Expert reviewers who submit comments are credited by name in the final report for their contribution. Such comments are a vital contribution to the quality of the assessment. But because the review is essentially open to all through a self-declaration of expertise, it follows that having been a registered expert reviewer does not by itself serve as a qualification of the expert or support their credibility in a different context.

In this year 2025, Muhammad Irwan Padli Nasution is a lecturer of Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara, Medan Indonesia who was selected as a member of the team expert reviewers to serve as Expert Reviewers on the First-Order Draft (FOD) of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities. The Expert Review of the First Order Draft will run from 17 October to 12 December 2025. Experts who comment on this draft will be invited to comment on the second order draft, which will also be reviewed by governments.

The IPCC is committed to preparing reports assessing the current state of knowledge of the science related to climate change that aim for the highest standards of scientific excellence, balance, and clarity. To achieve this, each report undergoes two review periods: an Expert Review of the First Order Draft, and a Government and Expert Review of the Second Order Draft. This review process includes wide participation, with hundreds of reviewers commenting on the accuracy and completeness of the scientific assessment contained in the drafts. An Expert Reviewer may decide to comment on one section of the report, on a complete chapter, or on the report as a whole. At the beginning of each review period, the IPCC issues a press release with details of the duration of the review period and how to participate. Expert Reviewers must provide a self-declaration of expertise. If you are interested in reviewing IPCC reports, look out for these announcements on the IPCC website and on social media.

Source: https://www.ipcc.ch/