Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an international organisation, set up by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988 to provide a forum for the open and objective evaluation of knowledge about human-induced climate change.
The IPCC’s main activity is to produce regular reports on climate change for the countries of the United Nations. The first report was produced in 1990, the second in 1995 and the third in 2001. The fourth report is being produced now, in 2007. It is being published in sections on the IPCC website and is the single, most important place to look for up-to-date information.
The report has four major sections:
- Working Group 1: the Physical Science Basis
- Working Group 2: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
- Working Group 3: Mitigation of Climate Change
- Working Group 4: Synthesis - due for publication 16 November 2007
Each section is in three parts
The Main Report: very detailed, usually very technical but comprehensive
The Technical Summary: much shorter but still technical, the place to look if you have an understanding of the topics
The Summary for Policymakers: short, non-technical in the main and the best place to start
There is a great deal of talk of consensus in climate change science and politics. Because of the importance of the research and the consequences of making mistakes, the IPCC reports are a way, not found in other areas of science, of bringing together the experts in many areas that contribute to our understanding of climate change and producing a broadly agreed common view.
While there are researchers who will disagree with the detail of parts of the IPCC report, there are very few people actively working in the field who disagree with the broad conclusions of the IPCC reports.
Image: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
All rights reserved.