Earth & Cosmos / Earth, Climate & Environment

IPCC climate assessments

Created in 1988, the IPCC turns thousands of studies into consensus reports that underpin climate treaties.

The World Meteorological Organization and the UN Environment Programme founded the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988 to assess climate research for governments. Its first report (1990) led to the UN climate convention of 1992, and its assessments, written by volunteer scientists and approved line by line by governments, have underpinned the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.