SIXTY-FIRST SESSION OF THE IPCC
Sofia, Bulgaria, 27 July – 2 August 2024
IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10(16.VII.2024)
Agenda Item: 5
ENGLISH ONLYSTRATEGIC PLANNING SCHEDULE FOR THE SEVENTH ASSESSMENT CYCLE(Prepared by the IPCC Bureau)(Submitted by the Secretary of the IPCC)

IPCC Secretariat
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STRATEGIC PLANNING SCHEDULE FOR THE SEVENTH ASSESSMENT CYCLE
1.

DEVELOPMENT OF A PROPOSED STRATEGIC PLANNING SCHEDULE

At the 60th session of the IPCC Panel, the Panel “request[ed] the Bureau to prepare a document
outlining the month and year of delivery on the basis of an AR7 strategic plan” (IPCC-LX-9). An initialplan was drafted by the Working Group (WG) and Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories (TFI) Co-Chairs, drawing on inputs from Bureau Members.
At the 67th session of the Bureau, this initial plan was discussed in detail. The IPCC Bureau requested
the WG/TFI Co-Chairs revise the BUR-LXVII/Doc. 4 to reduce the overlap in government review
periods, ensuring that there were no more than two consecutive weeks of overlap in government
reviews.
This change was implemented and a revised version of the Strategic Planning Schedule was sharedwith the IPCC Bureau. Nearly all Bureau members agreed with the revised version or made only
editorial suggestions. Section 2 of this document contains the revised Strategic Planning Scheduleincorporating the change requested along with the subsequent editorial suggestions.
The proposed Strategic Planning Schedule contained in Section 2 of this document is forconsideration and decision by the Panel in line with Decision IPCC-LX-9 paragraph 9.
2.

PROPOSED STRATEGIC PLANNING SCHEDULE

This paper outlines the IPCC Co-chairs’ proposed schedule for the Seventh Assessment Cycle (AR7)work program, taking into consideration comments raised during P-60, as requested in decision IPCCLX-9.
This plan was initially drafted by the Working Group (WG) and Task Force on National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories (TFI) Co-Chairs, discussed during the 67th Session of the IPCC Bureau (B-67), andrevised after B-67.
It contains a schedule, including an outline of the month and year of delivery of IPCC reports asrequested in Paragraph 9 of IPCC-LX-9. It also includes additional elements ensuring AR7 is
inclusive, policy relevant and comprehensive, while fostering integration across Working Groups andwith the TFI.
The schedule has been developed to meet the science needs of our reports, in particular the needfor scientific rigor and comprehensiveness while striving for reports across all WGs thar are policyrelevant, neutral, robust, comprehensive and accurate. The schedule highlights specific actions thatwill be taken to ensure inclusivity and diversity in the AR7 cycle. The schedule incorporates thefollowing principles:••

Scheduling of meetings and review periods in line with past practice, allowing for a sufficientduration at each stage of production of the reports; 1 andInclusivity of experts and authors and a feasible workload (see also IPCC-LXI/INF.15).

The schedule was also developed with the following conditions:•

The intention to hold a joint AR scoping meeting across all WGs in December 2024 (as for
AR6);

1 The duration of each step of report preparation (e.g., development of the drafts, expert and Government

review periods) falls within the range of durations used in AR5 and pre-CoVID AR6 (see Table 3).
IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10, p.1

••

Delivery of the WG reports in the order WGI, WGII and WGIII per Paragraph 9 of IPCC-LX-9;
and
Ensuring a feasible workload for Governments, IPCC Bureau members, Authors, TSU staff,
and experts by avoiding potential overlaps in activities as much as possible, including
minimizing overlaps with common holiday periods and ensuring no more than a twoconsecutive week overlap period in government reviews.

Using these principles and conditions, the WG and TFI co-chairs developed the schedule byidentifying what was necessary to achieve an inclusive, quality report while maintaining momentum
from a rapid start. The result is a single schedule for the programme of work in AR7 (Table 1; Figure1). In this schedule, the proposed delivery dates for AR7 will be:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Special Report on Climate Change and Cities (SR-Cities): March 2027
Methodology Report on Short-Lived Climate Forcers (MR SLCF): July 2027
Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilizationand Storage (MR CDR/CCUS): July 2027
WGI Assessment Report: May 2028
WGII Assessment Report and updated IPCC Technical Guidelines on Impacts andAdaptation: June 2028
WGIII Assessment Report: July-August 2028
Synthesis Report (SYR): May 2029

The dates listed above are indicative, intended to be used for planning purposes, and will be updated
if needed. Some buffers are built into the schedule to accommodate small adjustments (e.g., theextension to the call for scoping meeting nominations adopted recently), but additional flexibility may
be required to accommodate additional changes that arise, evolving needs, or external constraints(e.g., venue availability). In addition, any unforeseen surprises (such as experienced with CoVID)
would require adjustments to the schedule.

IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10, p.2

Proposed schedule
Table 1: Proposed AR7 schedule with delivery dates in month/year format. Dates are indicative, with more certainty on the earlier part of the schedule.

SR CITIES

WGI

WGII

WGIII

SYR

MR SLCFMR CDR

Scoping MeetingApr 2024

Dec 2024

Dec 2024

Dec 2024

May 2027

Feb 2024

Oct 2024

Outline Agreement

July 2024

Feb 2025

Feb 2025

Feb 2025

July 2027

Jul 2024

Feb 2025

LAM1 (CWT1 for SYR)

March 2025

Dec 2025

Dec 2025

Dec 2025

Jan 2028

March 2025

July 2025

LAM2 (CWT2 for SYR)

July 2025

April 2026

May 2026

June 2026

May 2028

Oct 2025

Oct 2025

Oct-Dec 2025

Aug-Sept 2026

Oct-Nov 2026

Nov 2026 - Jan 2027

N/A

Jan-Feb 2026

Jan-Feb 2026

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Sept-Nov 2028

N/A

N/A

Jan 2026

Nov 2026

Jan 2027

Feb 2027

Dec 2028

March 2026

March 2026

May-June 2026

May-June 2027

June-Aug 2027

Aug-Oct 2027

N/A

Aug-Sept 2026

Aug-Sept 2026

Aug 2026

July 2027

Sept 2027

Dec 2027

N/A

Dec 2026

Dec 2026

FGD Review

Dec 2026-Jan 2027

Dec 2027-Feb 2028

Feb-April 2028

Apr-June 2028

N/A

March -April-May 2027

March -April-May 2027

Approval

March 2027

May 2028

June 2028

July-August 2028

May 2029

July 2027

July 2027

FOD Review
SPM SYR Review
LAM3 (CWT3 for SYR)SOD Review
LAM4

Note: This table shows the tentative AR7 schedule by month and not by week; as a result, some activities may seem to overlap or be closer together than reality. The only possible
overlaps would be as follows: WGI FOD-TFI SODs review (7 week overlap), WGII-WGIII FOD reviews (3 week overlap), SR Cities FGD-WGIII FOD reviews (5 week overlap), WGI SODTFI FGD reviews (2 week overlap), WGII SOD review-TFI approvals (1 week overlap). Details on overlaps are displayed in Table 2. Duration of each step is shown in Table 3.

IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10, p.3

Figure 1: Proposed AR7 schedule (Gantt Chart) with timing of key events indicated. Activities to increase inclusivity are planned throughout the cycle (see
IPCC-LXI/INF.15), including: an Expert Meeting, inclusivity training for authors prior to LAM1, outreach via regional webinars to promote the potential roles
in IPCC, improvements to the process to engage Contributing Authors and Chapter Scientists). In addition, networking activities are envisioned throughout
the cycle to broaden the input into the process and help orient focal points and government reviewers to the review process. In particular, the 12 months
between the Scoping Meeting and LAM1 will be used to strengthen these inclusivity activities. Note that events are indicated if they occur at any point in
the month shown but may only impact a portion of the month; as a result, seeing two activities in the same month may not indicate an overlap. Overlaps
are shown in Table 2.

IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10, p.4

This plan includes several innovations to facilitate enhanced integration across Working Group
themes, relative to past cycles:•••First, we propose a joint first lead author meeting (LAM1) across all WGs, tentatively heldin December 2025. We considered this option to better facilitate cross-WG discussion andintegration across WG Bureaus, such as cross-WG author activities that will facilitate crossWG boxes or chapters.
Second, we propose a joint internal review of the Zero Order Draft (ZOD) in early 2026,
which is an internal phase (not involving governments). This review period is designed toallow cross-WG reviews by experts, and also to reinforce the integration between WGs doneby the author teams. The review period has been extended to 6 weeks (instead of the 4weeks in AR6) to accommodate the overlap.
Finally, the plan includes an intentional overlap in the First Order Draft (FOD) review
period to allow for cross-WG reviews. These review periods have been extended in suchcases.

The strategic schedule was developed to ensure all IPCC procedures were followed with respect toexpert and governmental reviews, that overlapping review periods were minimized and constrained
to no more than two consecutive weeks when governments are involved. As a result, all such reviews
are at least 8 weeks as per past practice. In the proposed schedule, there are only 3 weeks ofoverlapping reviews that impact governments, a substantial reduction from the 14 weeks ofoverlap impacting governments in the AR6 pre-CoVID plan (Table 2). Additionally, several review
periods have been extended when overlaps occur to ensure adequate time for both experts andgovernments.
Table 2: List of overlaps of activities in AR7 and AR6. Overlapping periods involving governments are indicatedin the last column. Note that some review periods have been extended to address overlaps.

AR7 OVERLAPSACTIVITIESOVERLAPDATESIMPACT ON GVTS

WGI FOD - TFI SODs reviews

7 week overlap

Aug-Sept 2026

No

WGII - WGIII FODs reviews

3 week overlap

Nov 2026

No

SR Cities FGD-WGIII FOD reviews

5 week overlap

Dec 2026-Jan 2027

No

WGI SOD-TFI FGDs reviews

2 week overlap

May 2027

Yes

WGII SOD review-TFI Approval

1 week overlap

July 2027

Yes

IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10, p.5

AR6 OVERLAPSACTIVITIESOVERLAPDATESIMPACT ON GVTS

SR 1.5 FGD- SROCC FOD reviews

3 week overlap

June 2018

No

SR 1.5 FGD- SRCCL FOD reviews

7 week overlap

June-July 2018

No

SROCC FOD-SRCCL FOD reviews

2 week overlap

June 2018

No

SROCC SOD-SRCCL SOD reviews

8 week overlap

Nov-Dec 2019-Jan 2019

Yes

SROCC FGD-SRCCL FGD reviews

1 week overlap

June 2019

Yes

WGI FOD-SROCC FGD reviews

2 week overlap

June 2019

No

WGI FOD-SRCCL FGD reviews

8 week overlap

Apr-May-June 2019

No

WGI FGD-WGIII SOD reviews

1 week overlap

Dec 2020

Yes

WGII FGD-WGIII FGD reviews

4 week overlap

June 2021

Yes

Figure 2 illustrates the proposed schedule of work in relation to AR5 and AR6 (pre-CoVID) schedules;
the schedules are divided into “pre-LAM1” preparation stage and “post-LAM1” production stage for
all ARs (i.e. LAM1 = Month zero).
The proposed schedule from LAM1 to approval for WGI in AR7 (29 months, see Figure 2) is consistent
with the amount of time allocated in AR6 pre-CoVID (29 to 34 months, depending on WG), resulting
in the WGI approval occurring in May 2028. For WGII and WGIII, a few more months are scheduled
to allow for the sequential delivery per Paragraph 9 of IPCC-LX-9. Table 3 shows the duration of themain steps in producing the AR7 WG reports, as well as a comparison to AR5 and AR6.
Figure 2 also allows a comparison of the preparation stages leading up to LAM1. In AR6, this period
was long (24 months) due to the heavy workload with three parallel Special Reports. In AR7, thisperiod is reduced to 12 months, while still ensuring that key stages do not conflict with SR Cities
activities.

IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10, p.6

Figure 2: Comparison of the WG Report duration for AR5, AR6 (before COVID) and AR7. All times have been aligned at the time of LAM1 (Month=0). This
presentation allows to compare durations for both preparation stages before LAM1 and production stages after LAM1 when all authors are involved andreviews are taking place. Since times are aligned to LAM1, the actual month represented differs across reports within the same column (e.g., AR6 had a joint
scoping meeting for all three working groups, but it shows in months -13, -20, and -23 for WGI, WGII, and WGIII, respectively, because LAM1 occurred at
different points after the scoping meeting). Note that Special Reports and Methodology Reports are not shown. In AR6, the time prior to the WG LAM1 was
required to accommodate three Special Reports. AR7 only includes one Special Report and thus less time is required prior to LAM1.

IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10, p.7

In the AR7 cycle, the Bureau is committed to increasing inclusivity among authors and experts,
including both ensuring diversity in participation, but also to ensuring the voices of all participants areheard (see also IPCC-LXI/INF.15). The schedule includes 10 months between panel agreement on
the AR7 outline and LAM1 to ensure adequate time to engage authors and ensure a large, diverse
pool of authors. The time block before LAM1 is also key for integrated cross-WG coordination and for
activities ensuring an efficient LAM1. Ensuring a diverse pool of authors are actively engaged, alongwith cross-WG coordination, will also support comprehensiveness of the assessments. Several
important activities include:
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

Networking activities that enhance equity and inclusivity, including through broadening theauthor pool;
Considering outcomes from the Gender, Diversity and Inclusivity Expert Meeting.
Starting coordination for preparing the ZOD ahead of LAM1 to ease the burden on authors
later;
Organizing dedicated Expert Meetings (EMs) in which outcomes will inform AR Author
teams;
Dedicated author training sessions before LAM1 on important topics (e.g., webinars on IPCC
process, inclusivity, document management tools, data management, use of AI etc.).
Comprehension and integration of all new information from these training sessions especially for those new to the IPCC process – will be given more time than would beavailable during face-to-face LAMs, which was past practice;
Allowing better engagement with CLAs across WGs to, for instance, discuss cross-working
group integration and alignment of report narratives and focus prior to LAMs; andMonitoring and evaluation of inclusivity practices through surveys and frequent discussions
in Bureau meetings throughout the cycle.

Table 3: Comparison of duration of main steps of report production. Ranges across WGs are provided
for AR5 and pre-CoVID AR6. Specific values for each WG are provided for AR7. Duration for SRs andMRs not shown.

Call for scoping
nominations

1 month

1 month,extended to 1.5

WGI
1.25 months,
extended to ~1.5

Call for authors
Author selection
Preparation ofinternal draft
Internal draft review
Preparation of FOD

2 months
3 months
4 to 6months*2 months*
4 to 6months2 months
3.5 to 5.5
months2 months
3.5 to 5months2 months

1.5 months
3 months
2 to 4 months

1 month
3.5 months
2.5 months

AR7
WGII
1.25 months,
extended to~1.5
1 month
3.5 months
2.5 months

1 to 1.5 months
3 to 3.5 months

1.5 months
3.5 months

1.5 months
4.5 months

1.5 months
5 months

2 months
6 months

2 months
6 months

2 months
5.5 months

2.5 months
6 months

2 months
4 to 6 months

2 months
5 months

2 months
5 months

2 months
5 months

2 months

2.5 months

2 months

2 months

AR5 Range

FOD review
Preparation of SOD
SOD review
Preparation of FGD
FGD review

AR6 Range

WGIII
1.25 months,
extended to~1.5
1 month
3.5 months
2.5 months* Information for WGIII AR5 missing** Note: Sum of months does not equal the total duration of cycle. Times between end of review and LAMs
are not included.

IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10, p.8

Continuous Monitoring and Evaluation of the Strategic Plan
Note that the strategic planning schedule described in this document is an initial plan that will be
continuously evaluated as the cycle progresses and updated if needed per the two aforementioned
principles of schedule duration and inclusivity. In particular, some elements of the timeline may
depend on the scope and (expected) length of the reports, and the plan’s schedule may require
refining once outlines are developed. Plans for inclusivity will be monitored and evaluated andupdated following the Expert Meeting on Gender, Diversity and Inclusivity, and implementation ofrecommendations resulting from that Expert Meeting, and from routine surveys and Bureau
discussions throughout the cycle.

IPCC-LXI/Doc. 10, p.9