Rarely does a gathering of scientists pouring over thousands of pages of complex data generate so much buzz.
But when the science in question concerns global warming, and those pages will form the world's most important report on climate change in years, the hype becomes more understandable.
On Friday, the United Nations'Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will hand down its fifth major assessment on climate science in Stockholm.
The report, six years in the making, brings together the latest findings from thousands of experts worldwide to form the scientific basis of climate change, and its impacts and future risks.
The vast 2000-page trove is condensed into a slim 20-page summary digestible for policymakers, which is then scrutinised line by line by hundreds of scientists until they all agree both documents can be published.
The level of rigour involved in the IPCC process is famously slow and painful, but proponents insist it's necessary given the influence the final report has on policy decisions.
The findings of past IPCC reports steered action on ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, and pushed global leaders into agreeing that avoiding a two-degree temperature rise was in the world's best interests.
"It is the benchmark used by all the world's governments in deciding on the level of action that collectively we should all be taking," the Climate Institute's Erwin Jackson told AAP.
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