Since its establishment in 1988, the IPCC has published six sets of "Assessment Reports". These documents summarize the latest scientific evidence on human-induced climate change and are considered the most authoritative reports on the subject. The IPCC has also produced a series of "special reports" focusing on specific areas of climate change. Carbon Brief analyzed the authors of all six sets of assessment reports, as well as the last five special reports. The data show that women and experts from the Global South have gained greater representation in IPCC reports over time, but are still underrepresented compared to their male and Global North counterparts.

The first IPCC assessment report, published in 1990, had approximately 100 authors. The analysis shows that less than 10 % of these authors were women and less than 20 % came from institutions in the Global South. Not a single woman contributed to the first assessment report of Working Group I on climate science. In contrast, the latest evaluation cycle, whose summary report will be published next week, has a total of more than 700 authors, of which more than 30 %s are women and more than 40 %s are from countries in the Global South. Carbon Brief spoke to a wide range of IPCC authors and experts about their experiences at the organization. Many experts emphasize the time-consuming nature of their work at the IPCC, describing the work as "intense", "stressful" and "unsustainable".

Experts also highlight obstacles they have encountered or seen during their time at the IPCC – including language, gender discrimination, funding issues and cultural barriers. "Strong, dominant, often male voices tend to prevail," the IPCC co-chair tells Carbon Brief. "Unconscious biases are there even when you pick the brightest scientists," another co-chair tells Carbon Brief. But they also tell Carbon Brief about the improvement in diversity and awareness over the past three decades.

The head of the IPCC's Gender Action Team talks to Carbon Brief about progress on gender equality, while members of the IPCC Bureau explain how they take diversity into account when selecting the authors of their reports. In what follows, Carbon Brief summarizes its findings through a series of graphs and maps. It also examines how the IPCC's approach to diversity has evolved since the organization's inception in 1988.

The IPCC was established jointly by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988. The purpose of the IPCC is to evaluate information in the scientific and technical literature related to all significant components of the climate change issue. The IPCC draws on hundreds of the world's expert scientists as authors and thousands as peer reviewers. Leading experts on climate change and environmental, social and economic sciences from around 60 countries have helped the IPCC prepare regular assessments of the scientific evidence for understanding global climate change and its consequences. Thanks to its ability to report on climate change, its consequences and the feasibility of adaptation and mitigation measures, the IPCC is considered the official advisory body for the entire world. government on the state of science on climate change. For example, the IPCC organized the development of internationally accepted methods for conducting national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions.