On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published the first part of its sixth assessment report on the current state of climate research. More than 700 scientists from around the world spent years working on it — not least to give policymakers a kind of practical guide for dealing with the climate crisis. But who's actually behind the IPCC? What can the report really achieve? And do we even need new reports at all?

"Back in 2001, I said we shouldn't really need the report anymore. Because we know what the problem is. And we know what needs to be done about it. Only, that was 20 years ago," says climate scientist Renate Christ in conversation with ORF.at. She spent around ten years as Secretary of the IPCC Secretariat — the "command centre" of the world's leading climate body — and gained deep insights into what goes on behind the scenes.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was founded in 1988 by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and counts nearly 200 states among its members. Its role is to provide policymakers with neutral information on the scientific findings regarding climate change and possible countermeasures...

Read the full report at: orf.at