State Department officials and National Aeronautics and Space and Administration (NASA) scientists were blocked from attending a United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting at which the outline for the Seventh Assessment Report on climate change is to be discussed.
NASA’s chief scientist and senior climate advisor, Kate Calvin, was slated to co-chair a discussion on the forthcoming report, but will not be in attendance. NASA was contracted to provide technical support for the meeting, but those contracts have been terminated. It is unclear if US scientists will be allowed to continue to participate in the writing of future IPCC reports.
The IPCC report includes the latest scientific findings on climate change and informs policymakers and leaders across the world. US scientists had been heavily involved in crafting the latest installment of the report, which is due to be published in 2029 and involves the work of thousands of international scientists and government officials.