PARIS, July 24, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose reports establish scientific consensus on climate change, meets this week in Nairobi to elect a new chair.

South Korean economist Hoesung Lee is stepping down after nearly eight years at the helm and the UN body set up in 1988 could now elect its first female leader.

Two women are among four candidates for the post -- Brazil's Thelma Krug, an IPCC vice-chair and former researcher at her country's national space institute, and South Africa's Debra Roberts, a biogeographer specialising in urbanisation issues and currently co-chair of an IPCC working group investigating the effects of climate change on societies and ecosystems.

Paleoclimatologist Valerie Masson-Delmotte, who heads one of three IPCC working groups, said it was "important" to have female candidates on the slate -- unlike in 2015 when all six hopefuls were men.

"It's not because they are women but because they are people of high scientific prowess who understand well the contrasting political and social stakes in the world's different countries," she told AFP, adding all four hopefuls had the vision to spearhead renewal at a time of "many challenges".

Almost one in three contributors to the IPCC are women.

The two other candidates standing to head the body are Belgian Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a climatologist who previously ran for the post in 2015 and Briton Jim Skea, a professor of renewable energy at Imperial College in London.

Skea is also co-chair of an IPCC working group looking at how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Whoever lands the top job will lead and oversee hundreds of experts through to the end of a crucial decade, considered to be the last for humanity to act to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to preindustrial levels.

- Shock reports -

Masson-Delmotte stressed the importance of the role of chair in the functioning of the institution which encompasses 195 countries.

"They oversee the plenary meetings where all the decisions are taken. They also play a supervisory role in drawing up summary reports" while acting as an interface with the diplomatic world.

The organisation's mission statement is to prepare reports on "the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place".

The IPCC in 2007 received the Nobel peace prize accolade jointly with former US vice-president Al Gore.

Every five to seven years it publishes a group of peer reviewed reports which synthesise the latest climate change science.

The most recent synthesis report was published last March, and showed in no uncertain terms that previous synthesis reports had somewhat underestimated the effects of global warming.

Those authoritative reports become central to global climate negotiations, telling world leaders at COP international summits how much human activities have warmed the Earth, and how to mitigate global warming.

COP28 will be held from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai.

Lee, an economist specialising in energy issues, succeeded India's Rajendra Pachauri, who resigned in February 2015 amid accusations of sexual harassment by a colleague in India and who died in 2020.

The Nairobi meeting will be the IPCC's 59th plenary assembly which will also see the election of 34 members to the body's bureau.