Communicating the IPCC: Challenges and Opportunities

The Paris Agreement on climate change adopted at COP21 can be seen as an endorsement of the communications activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). After all, the agreement is science-based and draws on findings of the Climate Panel. And yet the Climate Panel has been criticized—not least by its prime audience of policymakers—for delivering products that are difficult for non-specialists to understand and use. This paper examines the history of IPCC communications, with a focus on the communications activities of the IPCC for the Fifth Assessment Report, including the constraints it operated under and the innovations it made, such as the use of headline statements, video, and an enhanced outreach programme. It also looks at the efforts the Climate Panel is undertaking to make its products more accessible and user-friendly while maintaining their scientific rigour. This includes a review of the discussions and recommendations of the IPCC’s Expert Meeting on Communications, held in February 2016, and how they are being taken forward. It aims to further understanding of the communications work of the IPCC, while locating it in the policy context and the broader activities of climate communications. In so doing it may encourage further thinking on how IPCC communications can be strengthened.