By AIT Public Affairs
24 December 2024: AIT’s Prof. Shobhakar Dhakal has been selected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a Coordinating Lead Author (CLA) for its Special Report on Climate Change and Cities. This report will be the first in the IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Cycle and is expected to be released in early 2027.
As a CLA, Prof. Dhakal will be responsible for delivering scientific assessment regarding trends, challenges, and opportunities for cities in a changing climate (Chapter 2 of the government-approved outline), as well as contributing to the technical summaries of the assessment and the summary for Policymakers.
Authors for this special report are selected from over 1,200 globally nominated experts. The First Lead Author Meeting (LAM1) for this assessment will be held in Osaka, Japan from 10 to 14 March 2025.
IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation. During its 61st Session in July 2024, the IPCC approved the outline for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and set a timeline for its completion by early 2027.
Prof. Dhakal, a professor in the Department of Energy and Climate Change at AIT’s School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD), has previously served as a CLA for IPCC’s Sixth and Fifth Assessment Reports (Working Group III – Mitigation). He was also involved in developing the content, structure, and framework for the IPCC Special Report on Cities and Climate Change in March 2024 in Riga Latvia. Additionally, he contributed to drafting the outline for the Seventh Assessment Report (Working Group III – Mitigation) in December 2024 in Kuala Lumpur.
