What is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. The IPCC represents the collective work of over 2,000 scientists, principally in the atmospheric sciences, but also comprising social, economic and other environmental components potentially impacted by climate change. Between its three Working Groups, the IPCC assesses the scientific and socioeconomic aspects of human-induced climate change, as well as options for greenhouse gas reduction and other forms of climate change mitigation. The IPCC neither conducts original research nor monitors climate-related data, but its periodic assessment reports and technical papers play a very important role in the creation of climate change policies worldwide. The IPCC was instrumental in establishing the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or the Convention) in 1
The IPCC is a scientific intergovernmental body set up by the World Meteorological Organization and by the United Nations Environment Program to provide the decision-makers and others with an objective source of information about climate change. The IPCC brings together the world’s top scientists in all relevant fields to provide reports based on scientific evidence and reflecting existing viewpoints within the scientific community. Click here to view the organization’s most recent report series on global climate change.
The United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Program created the IPCC in 1988. From the IPCC website: It’s role is to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adapting and mitigating the changes. What doesn’t it do? It doesn’t carry out research or monitor climate related data. It bases its assessment mainly on peer reviewed and published scientific papers. Who’s involved? Climate change experts from 154 countries plus non-governmental organizations. Several Canadian scientists have played and continue to play leading roles within the IPCC, including Dr. Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria and Dr. Gordon McBean of the University of Western Ontario. The IPCC meets once a year and have released an assessment every five or six years since 1990. What is contained in the assessments? The first part of the assessment deals with the sc
