Special Reports
Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN)
This IPCC Report impartially assesses the scientific literature on the potential role of renewable energy in the mitigation of climate change for policymakers, the private sector, academic researchers and civil society. It covers six renewable energy sources – bioenergy, direct solar energy, geothermal energy, hydropower, ocean energy and wind energy – as well as their integration into present and future energy systems.
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The Special Report considers the environmental and social consequences associated with the deployment of renewable energy technologies, and presents strategies to overcome technical as well as non-technical obstacles to their application and diffusion. The authors also compare the levelized cost of energy from renewable energy sources to recent non-renewable energy costs.
Climate change is one of the great challenges of the 21st century. Its most severe impacts may still be avoided if efforts are made to transform current energy systems. Renewable energy sources have a large potential to displace emissions of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels and thereby to mitigate climate change. If implemented properly, renewable energy sources can contribute to social and economic development, to energy access, to a secure and sustainable energy supply, and to a reduction of negative impacts of energy provision on the environment and human health.
Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX)
This IPCC report addresses, for the first time, how integrating expertise in climate science, disaster risk management, and adaptation can inform discussions on how to reduce and manage the risks of extreme events and disasters in a changing climate.
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The report evaluates the role of climate change in altering characteristics of extreme events. It assesses experience with a wide range of options used by institutions, organizations, and communities to reduce exposure and vulnerability, and improve resilience, to climate extremes. Among these are early-warning systems, innovations in insurance coverage, improvements in infrastructure, and the expansion of social safety nets. This report also incorporates case studies that illustrate specific extreme events and their impacts in different parts of the world, as well as a range of risk management activities.
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Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (2005)
Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) is a process consisting of the separation of CO2 from industrial and energy-related sources, transport to a storage location and long-term isolation from the atmosphere.
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This report considers CCS as an option in the portfolio of mitigation actions for stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Go to Carbon Dioxine Capture and Storage
Safeguarding the Ozone Layer and the Global Climate System
Issues Related to Hydrofluoro-carbons and Perfluorocarbons (2005)
The report contains a brief summary of relevant findings regarding the relation of ozone layer depletion and global warming.
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Furthermore, it has information on options to replace ozone-depleting substances that simultaneously contribute to the objective of the Climate Convention and the Montreal Protocol, and finally there is publicly available information on currently installed and planned global production capacities and a summary of available demand and emission projections of HFCs and PFCs. Go to website
Methodological and Technological Issues in Technology Transfer (2000)
The report addresses the technology transfer problem in the context of climate change while emphasizing the sustainable development perspective.
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A number of social, economic, political, legal, and technological factors influence the flow and quality of technology transfer. Go to website
Emissions Scenarios (2000)
The long-term nature and uncertainty of climate change and its driving forces require scenarios that extend to the end of the 21st century.
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This Report describes the IPCC scenarios and how they were developed. The SRES scenarios cover a wide range of the main driving forces of future emissions, from demographic to technological and economic developments. Go to website
Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (2000)
This is a report examining the scientific and technical state of understanding for carbon sequestration strategies related to land use, land-use change, and forestry activities and relevant Articles of the Kyoto Protocol.
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It discusses the global carbon cycle and how different land use and forestry activities currently affect standing carbon stocks and emissions of greenhouse gases. It also looks forward and examines future carbon uptake and emissions that may result from employing varying definitional scenarios and carbon accounting strategies, linked to the Kyoto Protocol, within the forestry and land-use sectors. Go to website
Aviation and the Global Atmosphere (1999)
The report considers all the gases and particles emitted by aircraft into the upper atmosphere and the role that they play in modifying the chemical properties of the atmosphere and initiating the formation of condensation trails (contrails) and cirrus clouds.
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The report then considers (a) how the radiative properties of the atmosphere can be modified as a result, possibly leading to climate change, and (b) how the ozone layer could be modified, leading to changes in ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth’s surface. Go to website
The Regional Impacts of Climate Change (1997)
The report establishes a common base of information regarding the potential costs and benefits of climatic change, including the evaluation of uncertainties, to help the COP determine what adaptation and mitigation measures might be justified.
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The report consists of vulnerability assessments for 10 regions that comprise the Earth's entire land surface and adjoining coastal seas: Africa, Arid Western Asia (including the Middle East), Australasia, Europe, Latin America, North America, the Polar Regions (The Arctic and the Antarctic), Small Island States, Temperate Asia, and Tropical Asia. Go to website
Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories
The series consists of three volumes: The Reporting Instructions (Volume 1) provides step-by-step directions for assembling, documenting and transmitting completed national inventory data consistently.
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The Workbook (Volume 2) contains suggestions about planning and getting started on a national inventory for participants who do not have a national inventory available already and are not experienced in producing such inventories. The Reference Manual (Volume 3) provides a compendium of information on methods for estimation of emissions for a broader range of greenhouse gases and a complete list of source types for each. Go to website
IPCC Technical Guidelines for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations (1994)
The Guidelines outline a study framework which will allow comparable assessments to be made of impacts and adaptations in different regions/geographical areas, economic sectors and countries.
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The Guidelines are intended to help contracting parties meet, in part, their commitments under Article 4 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Go to website
