The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has opened its entire publications portfolio to authors working on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), offering critical scientific content to contributors from developing nations and those facing access barriers.
This initiative is expected to significantly support the development of the three Working Group contributions to the AR7, enhancing the scientific input from authors worldwide. The IPCC has emphasized the importance of this access, particularly for experts from regions with limited institutional resources, as it enables broader participation in shaping climate science assessments.
AGU, a non-profit scholarly publisher in Earth and space sciences, maintains a portfolio of 24 peer-reviewed journals and four book series covering a range of topics, from geophysics and planetary science to climate change.
It also hosts the Earth and Space Science Open Archive, contributing further to the accessibility of emerging research.
The panel’s outlines for the AR7 Working Group contributions were finalized in February 2025 during the 62nd Session in Hangzhou, China following a scientific scoping meeting in December 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With those outlines approved, the IPCC has issued a global call for Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors, and Review Editors to begin work on the reports.
Hundreds of experts are expected to contribute voluntarily, with selection criteria emphasizing diversity in geography, gender, expertise, and generational representation. The authors will draft and revise chapters based on scientific evidence and feedback from two formal review phases.
AGU and the IPCC see this collaboration as a model for improving equity and transparency in climate knowledge dissemination. The move also signals a broader call for other scientific publishers to increase accessibility as the urgency of addressing climate change intensifies.
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