At the end of the first week of the two-week conference, which is taking in Katowice, negotiators from Kuwait, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. joined together to ensure that the conference would not "welcome" the recent IPCC report that listed stark consequences of the world's leading nations' not taking action to reduce the increase in global temperatures. The vast majority of the other nearly 200 countries in attendance were willing to accept the report, meaning that it would be a blueprint for actions to take in the future. But the four objecting nations would not agree to use the word "welcome" because of a belief that that would constitute an endorsement of the report. Instead, those four nations agreed that the report would be "noted," a stance that requires no consequent action.

The IPCC report was an update on efforts taken by nations that were party to the 2015 Paris Agreement, which set a target of keeping global warming below °2 degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st Century. The high-measure goal was a rise of °1.5 degrees Celsius. The report spelled out the very likely consequences of not keeping global temperature rises below those levels.

The conference continues for another week, punctuated by meetings of ministers and, in some cases, national leaders.