The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  launched its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2013-2014. The IPCC launches its Assessment Reports only every few years; the previous one was in 2007. This Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) is released in three parts: the report of Working Group I on the physical science (September 2013), followed by the Working Group II report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability (March 2014) and the Working Group III report on mitigation (due mid-April 2014). The IPCC’s synthesis report of all the three was issued in October 2014.

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) has been commissioned by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to communicate the findings of IPCC AR5 to decision-makers in developing countries.

Objective

This project aimed to communicate the findings of IPCC’s AR5 to decision makers in low income and climate-vulnerable countries in order to raise awareness of the risks from climate change and the possibilities for effective responses. The project has also produced a communications toolkit to increase the ability of developing country journalists and communicators – in government, business and civil society – to share the key messages of the report with broader stakeholder groups.

Policy dialogue events  

CDKN will partner with the host country governments to hold policy dialogue events in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda in June – August 2014.

These events brought IPCC scientists together with leaders from government, business and civil society in each country to discuss the findings of AR5. The events gave participants the chance to debate the implications for their work, and strengthen partnerships to respond to the findings of AR5.

A full schedule of events, including dates, venues and co-sponsoring institutions will be published shortly.

‘Highlights from AR5’ reports and communications toolkit

In a second, independent workstream, CDKN developed a toolkit to complement the IPCC’s own materials with additional resources to help communicate the AR5 messages in South Asia and East Africa. (NB. These directly reflect the messages of AR5 but are not IPCC-endorsed products.) These resources were launched on the CDKN website in May 2014.

•Two short ‘Highlights of AR5’ reports for policy-makers, covering South Asia and Africa and based on the AR5 science;

•Infographics and image resources for communicators in South Asia and Africa.

We also offered training on IPCC AR5 for selected journalists in South Asia and Africa.

CDKN Funding: 307,000