Following a recent gathering in Belem, Brazil, where 50,000 participants didn’t reach substantial agreements on climate initiatives, the United Nations is hosting over 600 specialists in France to draft additional reports on climate change.
Monique Barbu, France’s Minister for Environment and Transition, addressed the scientists near Paris, emphasizing the “invaluable” nature of their work amid increasing challenges to multilateralism, particularly from skeptics of climate action.
“We need to be particularly aware of the surge in climate-related misinformation circulating on social platforms, in the press, and within the political arena,” Barbu expressed to AFP news. “It’s concerning,” she added.
Many individuals are still skeptical of research findings, she noted, addressing representatives from over 100 countries who gathered in a high-rise in Saint-Denis.
This skepticism is echoed by sentiments within the Trump administration, where the President labeled climate change as “the biggest fraud in history” during a September address at the United Nations.
One of the key figures for the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is American climate commentator Katherine Calvin, who was dismissed from her role as NASA’s chief scientist after pressure from the Trump administration.
An official from France’s Ministry of Environment, who wished to remain anonymous, remarked, “It’s quite surprising, I must say, that the US government keeps asserting that climate change is a hoax.” AFP reported this sentiment.
The upcoming IPCC meeting in France is geared towards the 7th Assessment Report (AR7), anticipated to be published in 2028 or 2029.
Last month’s COP30 summit concluded with a call for joint efforts to avert climate disaster, but few specific strategies were outlined.
The declaration indicated a need for countries to significantly increase their climate-related expenditures over the next ten years and to monitor progress through suggested “voluntary indicators.” It also proposed a “global implementation accelerator” to hasten the shift from fossil fuels, albeit without clear methods for achieving this.
Notably, there was no consensus on addressing global fossil fuel consumption, which is a topic scheduled for discussion at the next COP summit in Turkey in 2026.
