Chapter 7 Australian Participation in the IPCCC

Sessions of the IPCCC and its Working Groups

Australia has been represented at all Sessions of the IPCC, its Bureau and its Working Groups since their establishment. The details of Australian participation in the first 18 Sessions of the IPCC are summarised in previous reports in this series. Australian participation in the more recent Sessions is as follows:

• IPCC-XIX was held in Geneva, Switzerland, 17 to 20 April 2002 with the participation of delegates from 146 countries. The Australian Delegation to the session comprised J W Zillman, I Carruthers and S L Barrell.
• IPCC-XX was held in Paris, France, 19 to 21 February 2003 with the participation of 322 delegates.

The Australian Delegation to the session comprised J W Zillman, M J Manton, I Carruthers, Barrell and C Lloyd. The Australian participation in Sessions of the Science Working Group WGI) has been as follows:

• First Session, Nuneham Park, UK, 24- January 1989, G B Tucker;
• Second Session, Windsor, UK, 23-25 May 1990, G B Tucker, M J Manton, A McEwan and D C Griffiths;
• Third Session, Guangzhou, China, 13- January 1992, J W Zillman, G B Tucker and P Cheng;
• Fourth Session, Maastricht, Netherlands, 13-15 September 1994, J W Zillman, Carruthers, B F Dixon, W Bouma;
• Fifth Session, Madrid, Spain, 27-29 November 1995, J W Zillman, W Bouma and B F Dixon;
• Sixth Session, Mexico City, Mexico, 10 September 1996, J W Zillman, I Galbally and B F Dixon;
• Seventh Session, Vienna, Austria, 30 September 1998, J W Zillman, I Carruthers, A Weir and E Curran; and
• Eighth Session, Shanghai, China, 15-23 January 2001, J W Zillman, I Carruthers, E Curran.

Australia is also represented by CSIRO’s Dr Penny Whetton on the Task Group for Climate Scenarios for Impact Assessment (TGCIA), established in early 1997. The role of the TGCIA is to facilitate interaction between climate modellers, researchers investigating the impacts of climate change, and researchers preparing greenhouse gas emission scenarios. The main focus of the group has been on helping impact researchers access climate change information from climate modelling. In particular, an objective has been to maximise the likelihood that impact researchers are using common model results and methods so that impact results can be integrated over regions and the globe in a consistent manner. The TGCIA established the IPCC Data Distribution Centre (DDC) to provide timely information and data to the international climate research community, in the form of consistent data sets and guidance material. CSIRO Atmospheric Research is trialling a mirror site for the IPCC DDC from which researchers can readily obtain standard model results. If successful, the mirror site will help increase access to GCM data in Australia and more widely.

Although the TGCIA contributed to the TAR, it is separately constituted and continues to exist beyond the TAR. Although its Terms of Reference were reviewed in 2003 and its membership refreshed. Its membership is from a broad range of countries and contains climate modellers, impact researchers and emissions modellers. Experts from each of the three working groups of the TAR are represented.