Participation at the IPCC’s First Lead Author Meeting in Japan for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) held the First Lead Author Meeting in Osaka, Japan from 10. – 14. March 2025 for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.

The Meeting was hosted at the Osaka International Convention Centre by the Ministry of Environment in Japan. The First Lead Author Meeting marked the kick-off and beginning of the drafting process of the Special Report and brought together almost 100 experts from over 50 countries. The experts brought diverse backgrounds and experiences across adaptation and mitigation, including academics and practitioners in urban topics. They are selected by the IPCC Bureau to serve as Coordinating Lead Authors and Lead Authors for the report.

Professor Dr. Matthias Garschagen, Chair of Human Geography, leading the Human-Environment Relations Research and Teaching Unit (HER) and Dean of the Faculty of Geosciences, participated in the Meeting in Osaka, in his role as a Coordinating Lead Author in the Report. Prof. Garschagen has been invited and nominated to co-lead Chapter 3 on ‘Actions and solutions to reduce urban risks and emissions’. He plays a key role in the drafting and leading of one of the core chapters of the report, which will cover the evaluation of different types of measures to reduce urban risks (for example, to floods, droughts, cyclones) and to reduce emissions (for example, in the transport and buildings sectors). The First Lead Author Meeting provided the first opportunity for the Lead Authors of every chapter to come together and develop the report based on the agreed outline in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the 61st session of the Panel. In addition to the author teams tasked with drafting the report, Coordinating Lead Authors of every Chapter are supported by a Chapter Scientist. Dr. Deepal Doshi, a postdoctoral researcher in the HER team at the Department of Geography, also participated in the Meeting in her role as Chapter Scientist for Chapter 3, which is co-led by Prof. Garschagen.

The First Lead Author Meeting concluded successfully on 14. March. The Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, is the only Special Report of the Seventh Assessment Cycle and is tasked with delivering an assessment of the latest scientific literature on climate change and cities, including impacts and risks, adaptation and mitigation solutions, how to facilitate and accelerate change and finally, synthesize the information by city types and regions.

The Report is scheduled for being finalized by March 2027.