Brazil bids to chair the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Brazil presented, on April 10th, the candidacy of Dr. Thelma Krug for the presidency of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for a mandate during the Panel's 7th assessment cycle (2023 to 2028).

The IPCC is the United Nations body responsible for assessing the science related to climate change. Its creation by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 was decisive to alert about the implications and possible risks associated with the phenomenon. It managed to mobilize political will and public opinion support for the establishment of a multilateral regime dedicated to the theme, under the aegis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), opened for signature during the Rio-92 Conference.

For more than three decades, the IPCC's technical inputs have strengthened science in the face of questions from skeptical sectors regarding the anthropogenic contribution to global warming, which enabled the achievement of ambitious international milestones such as the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement in 2015. For this key role, IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

With a degree in mathematics from Roosevelt University, Chicago, USA, and a doctoral degree in space statistics from the University of Sheffield, England, Dr. Thelma Krug has extensive experience in climate change, having made a career as a full researcher at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). In the Brazilian government, she was secretary at the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), from 2001 to 2003, and at the Ministry of Environment (MMA), from 2007 to 2008, where she also held the position of director, from 2016 to 2017. At the IPCC, she co-chaired, for two assessment cycles (2002 to 2015), the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and has held, since 2015, one of the three vice-chairs of the Panel.

The candidacy of a renowned scientist reflects the priority that the Brazilian government gives to global efforts to tackle climate change, both in adaptation and mitigation, which is also exemplified by the candidacy of the city of Belém, Pará, to host the 30th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 30) in 2025.

If her election is confirmed, she will be the first woman to chair the IPCC, in a clear sign of Brazil's support for gender equality and the occupation by women of important positions in international organizations. It would also be the first time that a representative from Latin America would chair the Panel.

The elections will take place during the 59th Plenary Session of the IPCC, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from July 24 to 28, 2023. In addition to the presidency, the other 33 vacancies on the IPCC Bureau will also be filled in this election.