evidence: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) collects, reviews, and summarizes the best information on climate change and its impacts, and puts forward possible solutions. The IPCC was created by the United Nations Environment Programme in 1988 and is widely considered the world’s top authority on climate science. Its reports are written for policymakers and scientists, but they are available to everyone. They often provide useful knowledge and data for teachers and journalists, like an encyclopedia. [...] In every IPCC report, scientists lay out the "state of knowledge" on climate change by summarizing current and relevant findings in the field. They find where the scientific community agrees and where further research is needed. The result is a report which contains many years of research collected from thousands of research papers and scientists around the world. One strength of the IPCC reports is that they consider how likely each scientific prediction is to be true based on the collected data. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages. It can be a long process, with many rules, changes, and reviewers. Much care is taken to guarantee objectivity and transparency. By rule from the U.N., reports must remain neutral on policies and do not suggest any particular political action. They instead focus on spelling out scientific findings that might help policymakers make decisions. The IPCC cannot tell leaders what to do, only what can be done. This is important because each country involved has its own needs based on its economic or political situation.