The 61st session will be opened in Sofia today- th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the United Nations (UN), BTA reported.
The forum will start at 9:30 am and will be held in a capital hotel. Nearly 500 delegates from 195 countries, part of the IPCC, are expected to take part in the scientific conferences dedicated to climate change and adaptation to it. They are expected to discuss issues related to the preparation of the organization's reports during the seventh assessment cycle, which began in July last year with the election of a new chair and new members of the IPCC Bureau, the Ministry of Environment and Water said earlier (MOES).
The opening of the session today is expected to be attended by the Acting Minister of Environment and Water Petar Dimitrov, the Mayor of Sofia Vasil Terziev, as well as other representatives of the institutions. Greetings are also expected from the IPCC Chairman Jim Skia, the President of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Abdullah Al Mandoos, the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program Elizabeth Maruma Mrema. A media briefing is scheduled after the opening.
Today's opening of the 61st session of the IPCC in Sofia is an extremely important event for our country, because it reinforces the role of Bulgaria as an active participant in international climate diplomacy, the ecoministry told BTA. The department indicated that climate change and its serious economic and human consequences are a fact that is visible to everyone in recent days, months and years. This is a global problem that could not be solved in a day by one institution, government or country. International institutions such as the IPCC give the direction for the decisions, but these decisions must be taken by the states, noted the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Tonight from 22:00 and 23:30 guests and residents of Sofia will be able to see the light 3D projection “Horizon”, which is dedicated to the climate and the relationship between man and nature. It will illuminate the National Palace of Culture.
Bulgaria's hosting of the IPCC will continue until August 2. There is an accompanying program with various scientific discussions in the capital and beyond. The beginning was made with a conference at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, dedicated to climate change in the Black Sea region. On July 30, Tuesday, a National Conference is scheduled on the topic: “Climate policies as an opportunity for investment in the development of the urban environment“.
Information on all side event events is available here
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The IPCC provides regular science-based assessments of climate change, its impacts and future risks, as well as options for adaptation and mitigation. The body was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The purpose of the IPCC is to provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies, the Ministry of Environment and Water said.
IPCC reports are a key input in international climate change negotiations. The intergovernmental panel does not conduct its own scientific research, the Ministry of Education and Culture explains. For the assessment reports, experts volunteer their time as authors to evaluate the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of the “drivers of climate change”. The IPCC is divided into three working groups. The first deals with the physical scientific basis of climate change, the second looks at climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, and the third analyzes climate change mitigation, the MoEW also says.