When material is created we often have to consider copyright. Copyright is among the most complex laws/regulations on the planet, and I am not a lawyer, so these thoughts are not definitive. But I have been close to copyright issues for many years and talked with lawyers, legislators and activists. So in creating "semantic climate" from IPCC reports we must consider copyright.
There are no simple answers. Copyright depends on the jurisdiction (country) and in most is a civil issue rather than a criminal one. It often requires a court judgment as to whether copyright is infringed. The internet and electronic media make it much more complex. A well-known case is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authors_Guild,_Inc._v._Google,_Inc. ("GoogleBooks") where Google scanned/indexed millions of books without permission and entered them into a search engine. It was argued that this was a transformative work (a US term, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformative_use). It also depends on whether the new work is non-consumptive - does the new version diminish the value of the original? Again it's complex - here's an in depth discussion from libraries and lawyers: (https://www.hathitrust.org/blogs/perspectives-from-hathitrust/operationalizing-non-consumptive-fair-use-to-revolutionize)
The IPCC has created and so owns much of the material in the reports (some is from other sources). They have discussed this in depth: https://apps.ipcc.ch/eventmanager/documents/65/240320210608-INF.%206,%20Rev.%203%20-%20Progress%20Report%20-%20TG%20Data.pdf (page 7 onwards). It starts:
Motivation Licensing of Content in IPCC Reports and the Data Distribution Centre The IPCC Assessment Report is based on an assessment of scientific literature. The underlying datasets are used extensively in the assessment process to corroborate, illustrate and communicate assessment conclusions. The tables and figures of the Assessment Report become important resources for activities associated with the implementation of global policy decisions taken on the basis of the report, activities which are becoming ever more widespread. The recommendations made here are intended to be taken together with work on the implementation of FAIR Principles (refs 6, 7).
Licensing, with a maximum of clarity and transparency, of IPCC material is essential to facilitate appropriate use of this material to address pressing climate change challenges, while protecting the rights of data providers. Open access and transparency of scientific data have been widely recognized as the “bedrock” of modern scientific progress (Science International, 2015 [4]). Ensuring that everyone has the right “to share in scientific advancement and its benefits” and “to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production” is enshrined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) [5].
The IPCC restricts the rights of users to manipulate content taken from its web domain (ipcc.ch) and published reports. This is standard practice for printed publications in order to prevent distortion and manipulation of content by others. This ensures that content subject to the rigorous IPCC approval process or bearing the IPCC logo is fully protected.
We agree completely with the motivation and we wish to ensure that nothing we do distorts the IPCC's purpose. We'll give the source of our materials and (since there may be some small erros) make it clear this is not definitive.
However we are building something new (transformative) which we hope enhances the IPCC reports. At this stage it's small and experimental and will not be widely puublished. If it looks like being valuable we will approach the IPCC with a request to develop it further.