• The text of draft reports changes in response to the comments from expert and government reviewers.
• Newly published scientific evidence is taken into account as the draft matures. Therefore, the final publication might differ from the drafts both in detail as well as in broader aspects. Draft reports are intermediate products and do not represent the scientific view the IPCC provides on the state of knowledge of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts.

The IPCC process is intended to create a working environment for authors and review editors to freely exchange information and arrive at a robust assessment of the highest quality. By prompting many of these discussions and broadening the range of scientific views, the comments by expert and government reviewers are an integral part of the assessment. IPCC review procedures are designed to enable this iterative process.

The recent media reports refer to the second order draft of the Working Group III contribution to the AR5. The review of this draft is being held from 25 February to 22 April 2013. Experts are invited to register and review the draft until the review period ends (see link below).

More than 16,000 comments were received during the review of the first order draft last year. The comments from this current second round of review will be considered in the final draft writing period and discussed at Working Group III’s Fourth Lead Author Meeting in July 2013. All drafts, comments and author responses will be published following the release of AR5 in 2014, as was done for previous reports.

The IPCC welcomes public debate about its assessments. However, as the drafts and comments should not be viewed separately from the final products, the IPCC will continue to ask for the confidentiality of draft reports to be respected, in line with its approved procedures.

For more information:

IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Jonathan Lynn, + 41 22 730 8066 or Werani Zabula, + 41 22 730 8120

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PDF version of this release

Note for editors:

The IPCC provides a clear view of the current state of knowledge about the science of climate change, its potential impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation, through regular assessments of the most recent information published in scientific, technical, and socio-economic literature worldwide. IPCC assessments are policy-relevant, but not policy-prescriptive.

For more information on the IPCC review process, go to:
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/ar5/review_of_wg_contributions.pdf

For more information on the Fifth Assessment Report, go to:
http://www.ipcc.ch/activities/activities.shtml

To register for the expert and government review of the second order draft of the Working Group III contribution to the AR5, go to:
http://www.ipcc-wg3.de/ar5review/

To see the Procedures for the preparation, review, acceptance, adoption, approval and publication of IPCC reports, go to:
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/ipcc-principles/ipcc-principles-appendix-a-final.pdf

To see the drafts and review comments of the IPCC’s latest report, go to:
http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/report/review-comments-disclaimer

In order to arrive at a balanced assessment of the options for mitigating climate change, Working Group III hopes to draw on the expertise of outstanding scholars as well as the experience and knowhow of other experts working on climate change mitigation.

The main stages of the review process are the review of the first order draft by scientific experts, the review of the second order draft by experts and governments, and a final round of government comments on the draft of the Summary for Policymakers.

During the review of the first order draft of its contribution to AR5, Working Group III received more than 16,000 comments from 610 reviewers from 57 countries. Every review comment is addressed by the authors of the report chapters. To ensure transparency, all the comments and the responses are published with the drafts after the reports are finally released.

Experts who have already registered for the review of the first order draft are automatically registered for the review of the second order draft. They can use the login credentials provided for the earlier review. Experts who have not previously registered may do so via the following link:

http://www.ipcc-wg3.de/ar5review

Please feel free to disseminate this review registration link within your professional networks. 

For more information contact:

IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Jonathan Lynn, + 41 22 730 8066 or Werani Zabula, + 41 22 730 8120

Follow IPCC on  Facebook and  Twitter

Note for editors

The IPCC provides governments with a clear view of the current state of knowledge about the science of climate change, its potential impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation, through regular assessments of the most recent information published in scientific, technical and socio-economic literature worldwide. IPCC assessments are policy-relevant, but not policy-prescriptive.
 

For more information on the IPCC, go to:
www.ipcc.ch

For more information on the Fifth Assessment Report, go to :
http://www.ipcc.ch/activities/activities.shtml

For more information on the IPCC review process go to:
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/ipcc-principles/ipcc-principles-appendix-a-final.pdf

For more information on Working Group III go to:
http://www.ipcc-wg3.de

The outline of the WGIII contribution to the AR5, as approved by the member governments of the IPCC, contains novelties as a dedicated chapter on human settlements, infrastructure and spatial planning and a framing chapter on social, economic and ethical concepts and methods. The authors will gather for a final, fourth meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July 2013 to discuss the comments received on the second order draft.

“The review process is a vital part of the IPCC assessments,” says Edenhofer. “It helps to ensure high quality of the final report, it creates ownership by the commenting governments and it ensures transparency of a process that necessarily takes years to complete.”

The lecture provides insights into available options and the associated costs, risks and opportunities. It is based on Edenhofer’s research and does not represent results from on-going or earlier assessments of climate change mitigation by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Edenhofer focuses on the prospects of international co-operation on climate change mitigation in so-called ‚second-best worlds’, where the availability of specific options such as technologies is limited or cooperative decisions by actors are inhibited by the decisions of other actors.

Edenhofer, who is currently in Vigo, Spain, for the third Lead Author Meeting in preparation of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, stresses the great use of further research and the assessment of risks, though some uncertainties will remain. „This is a defining feature of the problem, but a one hundred percent understanding is no necessary prerequisite for decision-making“. He notes, however, that it is certain that the climate change problem will not be solved by resources becoming scarce.

Linking cooperation under joint climate policies with cooperation on research and development, creating and linking emission trading markets and sanctioning uncooperative free-riders would be potential mechanisms to make climate mitigation more attractive for individual countries. ‚First movers’ could harness associated benefits in smaller than global coalitions.

„It is an honor for me to give this lecture and I thank the Barrié Foundation for their kind invitation“, says Edenhofer. The lecture is organized by the foundation’s Instituto de Estudios Económicos in collaboration with the Vigo research centre ‚Economics for Energy’. It is presented by the Director of Investments of the Barrié Foundation, Ana J. Varela. The lecture audience consists of academics, students, entrepreneurs and others.

The Barrié Foundation is privately-funded foundation created in 1966. It devotes its resources to programmes and projects aimed at promoting the sustainable development of Galicia, the autonomous community in North-Western Spain. Particular emphasis lies on initiatives concerning education and the development of talent. The foundation finances its activities from the returns on its assets.

In 2011, the foundation started the programme „educaBarrié“, as a channel of communication with the education community. It is intended to become a common space and meeting point for the exchange of activities and proposals in the field. Two interviews will be conducted with Working Group III Co-Chairs Ramón Pichs-Madruga and Ottmar Edenhofer which are prepared by students with the help of specialized teachers.

Further information:
http://www.fundacionbarrie.org/
http://www.educabarrie.org/

• This morning the three Co-Chairs of the group currently assembled in Vigo provided details about the work to be carried out during the week, which will contribute to the 2014 IPCC report.
• The Chairman of the IPCC and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change addressed the participants of the event, highlighting the importance of the assessment report for forthcoming climate summits.
• The results of this report will provide the basis for international negotiations and the discussion of climate change policies of 195 countries.

More than 20 meetings of the IPCC will be held in the Galician city this week. 281 lead authors and review editors will participate in the meetings of the Working Group III of the IPCC. Working Group III has the task of evaluating the available options to mitigate climate change.

This morning the three Co-Chairs of the group currently assembled in Vigo explained the purpose and goals of the meetings to be held this week. The press conference was attended by Ottmar Edenhofer from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Potsdam, Germany), Ramón Pichs-Madruga from the Centro de Investigaciones de la Economía Mundial (Havana, Cuba), and Youba Sokona from the African Climate Policy Centre (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia). Xavier Labandeira, from the University of Vigo (Vigo, Spain) and lead author of WGIII of the IPCC, joined them.

The Co-Chairs indicated that 281 experts from 56 different countries have been selected from over 1000 candidates to author the WGIII contribution to this Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC. However, many other experts and reviewers will support them in the process. Before the report is submitted for acceptance, there are three rounds of formal review. The first order draft of the report has been reviewed by more than 600 experts from all world regions, who submitted about 16,000 comments. The authors will need to reply to each of these comments.

The IPCC is the main global body for the assessment of climate change. A major task of the IPCC is to provide assessment reports on climate change based on the relevant scientific, technical and socio-economic information.

The participants were received and welcomed by the Director of the Spanish Climate Change Office, Susana Magro; the Galician Environment Minister, Rosa Quintana; the President of the University of Vigo, Salustiano Mato; and the Mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero. Afterwards, the IPCC Chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, and the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, addressed the experts to underline the relevance of the assessment report for the forthcoming climate change negotiations.

Pichs-Madruga indicated that this report will devote particular attention to the analysis of socio-economic aspects of climate change and to their implications for sustainable development and risk management, including regional issues. The Working Group III authors address all sectors involved in greenhouse gas emissions. This includes the energy, transport, and construction sectors as well as industry, agriculture, and forestry.

The Working Group III contribution of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) will consist of 16 chapters and will be released in 2014. The decision to prepare the AR5 was taken by the 195 member governments of the IPCC in 2008. Assessment reports are prepared by leading academics and experts who are organized in teams and whose output is extensively reviewed.

The meeting in Spain is the third of four meetings, and was preceded by gatherings in South Korea (July 2011) and New Zealand (March 2012). In Vigo, authors will discuss the comments from the expert review of the first order draft of the WGIII contribution to the AR5 and will prepare plans to provide the second order draft of the report for a new external review by February 2013.

The gathering is organized with the collaboration of the University of Vigo and the Economics for Energy research centre. Several other institutions have also supported this event: the Barrié, Ramón Areces and José Manuel Entrecanales foundations; the Basque Centre for Climate Change; the Galician government; the City Council of Vigo; and the Spanish government through its Climate Change Office.

The relevance of IPCC assessment reports

The IPCC was established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 1988. Its purpose is to assess the scientific, technical, and socio-economic information on climate change available worldwide with a clear mandate for comprehensiveness, objectivity, and transparency. IPCC assessment reports are extensively peer-reviewed and policy-relevant, but not policy-prescriptive.

So far the IPCC has issued four assessment reports. The first report in 1990 was key for the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The second report in 1995 provided critical scientific input for the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The third report in 2001 showed the need for a more comprehensive participation in climate change agreements. The fourth report in 2007 provided evidence that climate change is unambiguous and established human activity as a probable source. Just after the release of this last assessment report the IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Press contact:

Sandra Rodríguez
639 978 579
comunicacion@eforenergy.org

“The expert review is an important step in the assessment process,” says Youba Sokona, Co-Chair of Working Group III. “We hope that many experts from developed and developing countries will actively involve in this review exercise.”

The main stages of the review process are the review of the first order draft by scientific experts, the review of the second order draft by experts and governments, and a final round of government comments on the draft of the Summary for Policy Makers.

All review comments are addressed by the authors of the report. The comments and the responses are published after the reports are finally approved and released.

All three IPCC working groups are seeking wide participation by experts in the review of the drafts, encompassing the range of scientific, technical and socio-economic views, expertise, and geographical representation.

Interested experts are invited to register at: http://www.ipcc-wg3.de/ar5review/registration/

The meetings on Geoengineering and on Economic Analysis, Costing Methods, and Ethics were agreed in advance as part of the IPCC workplan. This does not imply working group or panel endorsement or approval of the proceedings or any recommendations or conclusions contained therein.

IPCC Expert Meeting on Geoengineering
Lima, Peru, 20-22 June 2011

The joint IPCC Expert Meeting of the Working Groups I, II and III provided a platform for exchange and discussion on geoengineering among experts from different disciplines as a cross-cutting issue of the Working Groups' contributions to the Fifth Assessment report.

Report of the meeting

IPCC Expert Meeting on Economic Analysis, Costing Methods, and Ethics
Lima, Peru, 23-25 June 2011

The joint IPCC Expert Meeting of the Working Groups II and III addressed issues of representing climate impacts in monetary and non-monetary terms, aggregating benefits and costs and implications for cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and the ethical dimensions of estimating costs of mitigation, adaptation and residual damages.

Report of the meeting

“This meeting examined the current and potential contribution of Indigenous peoples and local communities to climate change mitigation, as well as the impact on indigenous peoples and local communities of mitigation efforts,” said Govindan Parayil, Vice-Rector of the United Nations University (UNU) who co-convened the workshop.

Several case studies presented at the workshop identified current and emerging opportunities for indigenous peoples and local communities to contribute to climate change mitigation through carbon abatement and sequestration activities, including opportunities based on the provision of ecological services through application of traditional knowledge and practices.

Issues relevant to indigenous peoples and local communities will be considered in the Fifth Assessment Report. Responding to the need for information, IPCC and UNU, supported by other co-convenors from within the United Nations System, have co-organized two workshops.
“What is unique about this workshop is the open dialogue between IPCC authors, indigenous experts, and community representatives,” says Parayil. “We do hope it will enrich the IPCC assessment process.”

“For the Fifth Assessment Report we are trying to consider all available human options for mitigating climate change,” says Youba Sokona, Co-Chair of the IPCC WGIII who chaired the Cairns meeting. “The dialogue with experts and scientists on indigenous and local communities is inspiring and we are grateful to the United Nations University to have set the stage for this dialogue.”

The first workshop was held in Mexico City in July 2011. It focused on adaptation and vulnerabilities. This second workshop has addressed issues relevant to the mitigation of climate change. The participants examined how mitigation efforts can impact Indigenous peoples and local communities and what barriers exist to their involvement and benefitting.

Indigenous peoples and local communities are actively involved in innovative solutions based on their traditional knowledge, such as reducing emissions through fire management techniques, adopting renewable energies in their territories, and engaging in resource management projects that reduce pressure on natural resources and enhance local adaptive capacity.

There is a high level of interest in climate change mitigation within these communities, not least because climate change impacts on their territories and communities are likely to be both early and severe, posing a direct threat to many indigenous and marginalized societies given continuing reliance upon resource-based livelihoods.

The Fifth Assessment Report is the next major assessment of the IPCC due for completion in 2014. It will provide an update of knowledge on the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of climate change.

The workshop is being convened by the UNU and the IPCC, together with co-convenors including: the Australian Government Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency; the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA); the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD); the UN Development Programme, and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). It has been made possible through the generous contribution of donors including the Australian Government Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency; The Christensen Fund; the MacArthur Foundation; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Northern Territory Government; the Oak Foundation; and the United Nations University.

For further information:

Please see the website of the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Traditional Knowledge Institute
www.unutki.org/climate

Or contact Ms Kirsty Galloway McLean: g_mclean(at)ias.unu.edu

In his opening speech, Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-Chair of the WGIII, described the philosophy underlying the assessment process. “The success of international climate policy is dependent on sound and reliable climate science,” said Edenhofer. But instead of providing technocratic policy advice, decision-makers needed accurate maps of alternative transition paths to reach the goals of climate change mitigation.

In Wellington, the authors agreed on consistent ways of using data that underlie the analyses throughout the report, for instance concerning past emissions of greenhouse gases and scenario data to explore various future pathways of socioeconomic development. The chapter teams also agreed on the treatment of elements of the outline that are shared by several chapters. Among these are the discussions of barriers to the implementation of climate change mitigation strategies and of the associated risks and co-benefits.

Additionally to the cross-cutting issues relating to the structure of the report, there are areas of research that are relevant for several of the AR5 chapters. Among these is behaviour that is regarded as a driver of emissions from the individual to the national or institutional level. The authors have noted that aspects of behaviours can be rooted in culture over centuries, in livelihoods over few decades or generations, and in personal experience and lifestyles.

To comprehensively assess the implications of such cross-cutting issues for the mitigation of climate change a division of labour was established between the chapter teams and the decision taken to nominate contributing authors to tab all sources of available knowledge.

The Fifth Assessment Report will review and assess scientific, technical, and socio‐economic information relevant to the understanding of the risks of and responses to climate change. The scientific work of the IPCC is organized in three Working Groups (WGs): WGI covers the “Physical Science Basis of Climate Change”, WGII covers “Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” and WGIII covers “Mitigation of Climate Change”. Each WG contributes one volume to the AR5. The WGs jointly integrate their key findings into a Synthesis Report. The IPCC Plenary approved the outlines of all three WG contributions to the AR5 in 2009. The AR5 will be released in 2013 and 2014.

Subsequent reviews are scheduled as follows:

First Order Draft (FOD) expert review

Second Order Draft (SOD) government and expert review

For registration for the Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) reviews see http://www.ipcc-wg2.gov/ and for the Working Group III (Mitigation of climate Change) reviews see http://www.ipcc-wg3.de/ at the appropriate time.

In addition to the mandatory reviews, working groups may also prepare so-called “zero-order drafts” (ZOD) and circulate them for informal review. These zero-order drafts are incomplete, rough early drafts, partly due to the fact that literature continues to be published during an assessment. Scientific experts are invited to comment on the breadth of coverage and structure of a chapter in the ZOD, as important input for developing the FOD.

After a report is finalized, all drafts submitted for formal review, the review comments, and the responses by authors to the comments are made available on the IPCC and Working Group websites along with the final report [http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/contents.html, http://hcl.harvard.edu/collections/ipcc/index.html, http://www.ipcc-wg2.gov/publications/AR4/ar4review.html, http://www.ipcc-wg3.de/publications/assessment-reports/ar4/forth-assessment-review-comments, http://srren.ipcc-wg3.de/report].

This makes it possible to track how IPCC reports were developed. However, as was decided by member governments in the IPCC plenary, draft reports prior to approval are considered “pre-decisional” in the language used in the IPCC procedures, which means they are not final or ready for distribution. Drafts of IPCC reports are not made public before the final document is approved because statements that these are work in progress may get lost and selective quotation could give wrong perceptions of science and misleading conclusions. Only the final Report will meet the IPCC’s high quality standards of scientific excellence, balance and clarity. Therefore, drafts are provided in confidence to reviewers and are not for public distribution, quotation or citation.

A more detailed description of the development of an IPCC report and its review processes and the full text of the procedures can be found here:

http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/ipcc-principles/ipccprinciplesappendix-a-final.pdf (pdf file)

Text as pdf file

IPCC home

For two days, starting on Friday the 28th October, the author team met at the Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency (KLIF) facilities, Norway’s Focal Point to the IPCC, to discuss the chapter outline and to work on the individual sections. The workshop participants also identified current gaps in knowledge and data and planned for the further writing process.

More on the Web:

KLIF
http://www.klif.no/english/

Lee Schipper had earned his Ph.D. in astrophysics in 1985, but devoted his career to problems of transport, energy and environment, particularly in large urban areas. In the 1980s, he was a co-founder of the International Energy Study Group at the US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2002, he founded EMBARQ, the World Resources Center for Sustainable Transport. He had moved back to Berkeley as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California Transport Center, and became project scientist at Global Metropolitan Studies in October, 2008.

Schipper had obtained his bachelor’s degree in music from Berkeley in 1968. He led a jazz quintet and recorded “The Phunky Physicist” in Sweden in 1973. “Lee not only made a major contribution to energy efficiency over several decades, he was also a top jazz musician playing vibes, and was keen to play in the IPCC band. He will be sadly missed by many, in both these roles,” says Ralph Sims of the Massey University in New Zealand, who is Coordinating Lead author of the AR5 Transport chapter.

The WGIII co-chairs Ottmar Edenhofer, Ramon Pichs-Madruga and Youba Sokona, the WGIII TSU and the AR5 authors would like to express their sympathy to Lee Schipper’s wife and daughters.

Information about Memorial Service

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory obituary

World Resources Institute obituary

Each author team developed a detailed chapter outline. They further identified common themes across chapters and Working Groups, such as the treatment of uncertainty, emission trends or sustainable development, as well as modes of collaboration on these issues. Authors also discussed areas of insufficient coverage in the peer reviewed scientific literature and how to include non peer reviewed sources of high quality, commonly named ‘grey literature’, to fill these gaps. Chapter teams also started reviewing their own expertise portfolios, in order to name further contributing authors, when required expertise is missing.

"We have also started implementing our interim Conflict of Interest policy," says Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-Chair of the WGIII based at the German Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact research. The interim policy is fully consistent with the decision taken on Conflict of Interest by the Panel at its 33rd Session in Abu Dhabi, 10-13 May 2011, and the proposal made by the Task Group on Conflict of Interest.

On behalf of the member governments, the IPCC produces the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) that reviews and assesses scientific, technical, and socio‐economic information relevant to the understanding of the risks of and responses to climate change.

The scientific work of the IPCC is organised in three Working Groups (WGs): WGI covers the “Physical Science Basis of Climate Change”, WGII covers “Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” and WGIII covers “Mitigation of Climate Change”. Each WG contributes one volume to the AR5. The WGs jointly integrate their key findings into a Synthesis Report. The IPCC Plenary approved the outlines of all three WG contributions to the AR5 in 2009. The aim is to release the AR5 in 2013 and 2014.

Picture Gallery: Lead Author Meeting, Changwon, Korea, July 2011