This webinar, the second in a planned series in collaboration with the IPCC Focal Point for Italy, aims to convene climate change experts and other interested parties (e.g. representatives of academies of science). It will focus on how to participate as an Expert Reviewer in the First Order Draft of the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities (SR-Cities).
The webinar will introduce participants to the IPCC, explain the IPCC report production process, what an expert review is, why it is important, how to register as an expert reviewer and how to conduct an expert review.
The event will be recorded and summarized on the IAP website (see past webinars).
Background
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts, and future risks, as well as adaptation and mitigation options. The IPCC Assessment Reports provide authoritative information for governments and policymakers. While each IPCC report may include contributions from hundreds of authors, contributors and insights from developing countries are consistently underrepresented. This raises issues related to the diversity of inputs that are critical for policy-relevant assessments. There are also ethical aspects, as the risks and consequences of the climate crisis are disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable, those who typically live in countries that have historically emitted the least amount of greenhouse gases. Thus, there is a critical need to increase the breadth of insights and knowledge contributed to IPCC reports by experts from low- and middle income countries.
Format and Structure
When: Thursday, 18 September 2025
Time: 10:00 - 11:30 UTC; 12:00 - 13.30 CEST; 6:00 – 7:30 AM EST – after registration, you will receive notification aligned with your local time zone.
Registration: All participants, including speakers, should register using this link.
Agenda
Welcome
Introduction to the IPCC
The IPCC report production process
What an expert review is
Why it is important
How to register as an expert reviewer
How to conduct an expert review.
Discussion / Q&A
Speakers
Peter McGrath has acted as the Coordinator of the InterAcademy Partnership secretariat In Trieste, Italy, since 2013. He has a background in the biosciences, with a PhD from the University of Leeds, UK. His ten-year research career focused on the transmission of viruses by insects was spent between labs in the UK and USA. He joined The World Academy of Sciences (UNESC-TWAS) in 2003, where he became responsible for overseeing TWAS’ capacity building programmes for science in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. From 2011, he was also tasked with building the TWAS science diplomacy programme and maintained his activity in this activity when transferring to IAP in 2013.
Anna Pirani, IPCC National Focal Point for Italy, Senior Scientist and Director of the Programme on Predicting Socio-Economic Outcomes, Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC). Pirani is working on climate risk assessment considering multi-hazard risk, trans-boundary and cascading risks, possible climate futures, and the science-policy interface. She provides scientific support to the Italian ministry on the environment and energy security (MASE) for climate change negotiations at UNFCCC, the G20 and the G7.
Andrew Okem, Andrew is the Head of Science of the IPCC WGII Technical Support Unit. Prior to this role, he worked as a climate change governance and adaptation expert with the International Water Management Institute. He was a Science Officer with the IPCC Working Group II Technical Support Unit during the Sixth Assessment Cycle.
