The world's leading climate science body is heading into a key meeting still deadlocked over a question that once took minutes to settle: when to publish its next reports.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, opens its 65th session Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting runs through October 16. Many see it as the last chance to agree on dates that fall before UN climate talks in November 2028, Reuters reported. At those talks, countries are due to check progress toward the 2015 Paris climate goals.

The IPCC does not do its own research. Instead, hundreds of experts review thousands of studies, and every member government approves the summaries. Its reports have shaped every major UN climate deal for three decades.

The panel's scientists have proposed approving all three main reports by September 2028. Those reports cover the causes of climate change, how to adapt, and how to cut emissions.

A group of countries, including India, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China, wants more time. They say a rushed schedule shuts out scientists from poorer countries who lack time and money for unpaid work. "If you have a process that goes very quickly, it wouldn't be inclusive," said Joyce Kimutai, who represents Kenya.

Others suspect politics. "The elephant in the room is the politics," said Lisa Schipper, a Swedish IPCC editor, who said some countries are using the debate as a "stalling tactic." Russia's economy ministry called that framing a "deliberate misrepresentation." More than 30 countries in the High Ambition Coalition are pushing for the faster timeline.

Money is also tight. The United States, the panel's biggest funder, quit the IPCC in January. The panel's trust fund could run dry by the end of 2028 without new money, according to a report from its last meeting in March.

What we know: The IPCC meets in Addis Ababa October 12 to 16.
What we don't: Whether members will finally agree on a timeline.