Architecting the IPCC WGI AR6 Publishing Framework

Serving as the IT Officer for the IPCC Working Group I Technical Support Unit (TSU) in Paris involved managing the technical machinery behind some of the most critical reports in modern climate science. Supporting the formal process and the online publishing for reports like WGI AR6 (Sixth Assessment Report) and SR1.5 (Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C) meant building digital infrastructure that was reliable, secure, and accessible globally.

Custom Drupal Databases for Climate Science

Scientific assessments require compiling, reviewing, and tracking thousands of pages of text, datasets, and reviewer comments. To manage this formal review process, we developed custom databases within Drupal.

This portal handled:

• Secure submission pipelines for scientific authors.
• Multi-stage review workflows matching comments to specific chapters and lines.
• High-volume data exports for scientific analysts to verify citations and draft responses.

By utilising custom content types and optimised database queries, the database remained responsive even during peak review periods when thousands of international reviewers accessed the site simultaneously.

Publishing Frameworks and Microsites

Once reports are approved, the focus shifts to public dissemination. For both SR1.5 and WGI AR6, we built dedicated, lightweight microsites that allowed users to browse reports, download high-resolution figures, and search contents quickly.

Because these reports attract massive global traffic immediately upon release, we co-architected the web publishing framework to be served via robust caching layers and content delivery networks. This design prevented site crashes during high-concurrency press events and ensured that climate data was available to policymakers and researchers worldwide without delay.