10 November 2025, video address

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for the invitation to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the IPCC – to address the opening of COP 30. As the Chair of the UN body mandated to assess the scientific knowledge related to climate change, we are grateful for the opportunity to deliver this video message.

Allow me to start by congratulating the government of Brazil and the city of Belém on hosting this year’s COP, the first in Brazil since the 1992 Earth Summit. The “Rio Conventions” stand as a testament to a global commitment to tackling environmental and development issues.

Since then, the challenges posed by climate change to both human and natural systems have become both more acute and more evident.

The World Meteorological Organization has shown that 2024 was the warmest year on record, reaching 1.55 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, with the long-run trend standing at between 1.34 and 1.42 degrees Celsius.

UNEP’s 2025 Emissions Gap Report, released last week, shows that even if countries fully implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), global temperatures could still rise by 2.3 to 2.5°C this century.

Based on the evidence in the most recent IPCC reports, it is now almost inevitable that 1.5°C of global warming will be exceeded in the near term. This is unambiguously due to insufficient climate action over the last few years, and the consequent continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

But, returning global warming to 1.5°C by the end of this century may still be possible. This would involve immediate, deep and sustained reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, as well as the removal of substantial amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Though there are important knowledge gaps around the feasibility of doing the latter.

In that regard, I am pleased to inform you that two weeks ago, the IPCC member governments agreed on the scientific content of the 2027 Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage at the Panel’s 63rd Plenary session, in Lima, Peru.

With the Panel’s latest decision, the scientific content of all planned reports for the IPCC’s seventh assessment cycle has been agreed, and this clears the way for their production and publication starting from 2027.

IPCC reports have unequivocally established that climate-related risks, losses and damages, and adaptation needs increase with every increment of global warming. The Seventh Assessment Report, while certainly not neglecting mitigation, will place greater emphasis on climate resilience and adaptation. For the first time in IPCC history, we will have chapters on adaptation finance and responses to losses and damages.

As the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report shows, we have agency over our collective future, through both adaptation and mitigation actions. We have the know-how, the resources, and the tools to address the climate change challenge.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The IPCC’s capacity to assess and synthesise the vast and continually growing body of scientific knowledge on climate change, its impacts, and available responses is unique.

The key findings of our reports are durable. The many adaptation and mitigation options identified in our reports can be implemented right now. The IPCC is going to continue to deliver clear, authoritative, timely and actionable scientific findings that can support UNFCCC processes.

I wish you all fruitful and constructive discussions in Belém. I will be following your work closely and contributing to several events remotely.

Thank you.

ENDS