Chapter 7 Australian Participation in the IPCCC

Introduction

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988, under the joint sponsorship of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in response to the growing concern and uncertainty among governments about the prospect and implications of human-induced global climate change. Its mandate was to carry out an internationally coordinated scientific assessment of the magnitude, timing and potential impacts of climate change. Three Working Groups were set up to provide assessments of the state of the science (WGI), the potential impacts of climate change (WGII) and possible response strategies (WGIII). The work of the IPCC was, and continues to be largely based on the results from studies undertaken under the auspices of the World Climate Programme.

The Panel meets about once a year. It accepts, approves and adopts IPCC reports, decides on the mandates and work plans of the Working Groups and the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, the structure and outlines of its reports, the IPCC Principles and Procedures, and the budget. The Panel also periodically (typically every 5-7 years at the commencement of a major assessment cycle) elects the IPCC Chair, the IPCC Bureau and the Bureau of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. The IPCC Bureau meets two to three times a year and assists the IPCC Chair in planning, co-ordinating and monitoring progress in the work of the IPCC.

The IPCC's (First) Assessment Report was approved in August 1990, and provided the main scientific basis for the Ministerial Declaration of the Second World Climate Conference and the subsequent establishment of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (INC/FCCC). A Supplementary Report was completed in February 1992, as input to the final negotiating session of the INC/FCCC in May 1992.

The IPCC’s initial mandate has since been extended to provide updated assessments at strategic intervals and to address specific climate change issues as appropriate. Following the June 1992 signing of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) by 154 countries and the European Economic Community at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janiero, the IPCC was restructured in November 1992 with revised terms of reference. The responsibilities of the three Working Groups were redefined, with WGI remaining unchanged, WGII addressing impacts and response options (essentially a merger of the former WGII and WGIII), and WGIII addressing cross-cutting economic and other issues.

From 1993 to the end of 1995, the work program of the restructured IPCC focused on two main tasks:

• preparation of a 1994 Special Report for the First Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP1) to the FCCC (Berlin, April 1995) covering a number of key topics of particular interest to the Conference of the Parties;and
• preparation of a comprehensive Second Assessment Report (SAR) which was approved at the Eleventh Session of the IPCC in Rome in December 1995.

The Second Assessment Report (IPCC, 1996) was a principal input to the Second Session of the COP/FCCC in Geneva in July 1996 and was considered in detail by the subsidiary bodies to the FCCC, in particular the Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Ad hoc Group on the Berlin Mandate AGBM). An important element of the SAR was the Synthesis Report (titled, in full, IPCC Second Assessment Synthesis of Scientific-Technical Information Relevant to Interpreting Article 2 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), which integrated and synthesised material from all three Working Group reports. The SBSTA and AGBM requested further expansion and clarification of several issues, which lead to the preparation, through 1996-7, of a number of Technical Papers aimed at addressing these issues on the basis of the full material (ie the Summaries for Policymakers and the underlying Working Group reports) from the Second Assessment Report.

With a now-ongoing requirement by governments and by the FCCC for up-todate assessments of the climate change issue, the IPCC commenced preparations in late 1996 for a Third Assessment Report TAR) which was completed in 2001. A Discussion Paper outlining, inter alia, the structure of the IPCC, its Bureau and its Working Groups in order to conduct the third assessment, was circulated to governments for comment and decisions relevant to the conduct of the TAR were taken at the Thirteenth Session of the IPCC in the Republic of the Maldives in September 1997. For the TAR, the Working Group responsibilities were redefined as:

• WGI - assessment of the scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change (as for the SAR);
• WGII - assessment of the vulnerability of ecological systems, socio-economic sectors and human health to climate change and the potential consequences, with an emphasis on regional and crosssectoral issues; and
• WGIII - assessment of the mitigation of climate change and the methodological aspects of cross-cutting issues.

At its Fourteenth session in Vienna (October 1998), it was agreed by the IPCC that a dedicated Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories be established to take over the inventories work that had previously been jointly managed by the IPCC Working Group I, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). The establishment of the Task Force recognised the increased focus on the land use, land use change and forestry sectors that emerged through the FCCC Kyoto Protocol process.

The structure of the IPCC for the Third Assessment Report and the relationship of the IPCC to the FCCC and the World Climate Programme is illustrated in Figure 7.1.

Figure 7.1 The structure of the IPCC and its Working Group responsibilities as defined for the conduct of the Third (and subsequently Fourth) Assessment Reports, together with the role of the World Climate Programme and its components (WCRP (World Climate Research Programme), WCDMP (World Climate Data and Monitoring Programme), WCASP (World Climate Applications and Services Programme), WCIRP (World Climate Impact Assessment and Response Strategies Programme)) and the associated Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) in providing the scientific basis for the assessment work of the IPCC as input to the political negotiation processes under the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP FCCC). The principal avenue of cooperation between the IPCC and the FCCC is through the COP Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) which is complemented by the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI).

The Technical Support Units for each of the three Working Groups and for the Task Force for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, are hosted by the developed country Co-Chairmen, as summarised for the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) in Figure 7.2. Figure 7.2 also serves to emphasise the importance of the various contributors to the IPCC assessment process.

Figure 7.2 The organisational structure of the IPCC for its Fourth Assessment Report, including the three Working Groups and the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.

In parallel with the conduct of the TAR, a series of Special Reports was initiated to respond to specific assessment needs indicated by the SBSTA and, in the case of the aviation report, by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO):

• Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere, approved at a joint session of WGI and III in Costa Rica in April 1999;
• Special Report on Emissions Scenarios, approved at the Fifth Session of WGIII in Kathmandu in March 2000;
• Special Report on Methodological and Technological Issues in Technology Transfer, approved at the Fifth Session of WGIII in Kathmandu in March 2000; and
• Special Report on Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry, approved at the Sixteenth Session of the IPCC in Montreal in May 2000.

At its Fifteenth Session, in Costa Rica in April 1999, the IPCC agreed on guidelines for the preparation of its range of reports, including a stringent expert and government review process. The guidelines also spelt out the role of the Review Editors, whose task is to oversee the review process and ensure that government and expert review comments are considered fairly and that controversial views are represented adequately in the Working Group reports.

The TAR was finalised and approved during 2001. The three Working Group reports that comprise the main part of the TAR, were approved at sessions of the respective Working Groups, as follows:

• WGI report (Climate Change 2001. The Scientific Basis) at the eighth session of WGI in Shanghai in January 2001;
• WGII report (Climate Change 2001. Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) at the sixth session of WGII in Geneva in February 2001; and
• WGIII report (Climate Change 2001. Mitigation) at the sixth session of WGIII in Ghana in March 2001.

The three Working Group reports were formally accepted by the IPCC at its seventeenth session in Nairobi in April 2001.

The final component of the TAR, the Synthesis Report, was completed at the eighteenth session of the IPCC in London in September 2001. At that same session, the IPCC decided that it would continue to prepare comprehensive assessment reports, with the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) due to be completed in 2007.

Planning for the AR4 commenced at the Nineteenth Session in Geneva, April 2002, and at the Twentieth Session (Paris) in February 2003 a workplan was agreed which included two ‘scoping meetings’ of experts to be held during 2003 to develop the scope and structure of the AR4.

The IPCC was originally established, and continues to operate, as a scientific and technical assessment body with the primary task of providing broadly-based expert reviews of the state of knowledge of the climate change issue based on research and investigations carried out under the World Climate Programme and other relevant international and national programs. It is not itself a research-performing organisation and, while its mandate includes the assessment of policy options, it does not engage in policy formulation or political negotiation which are the responsibility of other bodies such as the COP/FCCC.

Reports and papers published by the IPCC are available through the IPCC Website, www.ipcc.ch.

Australia has participated actively in the work of the IPCC from the outset, through lead author and contributor roles in the preparation of its reports, through the organisation and funding of expert workshops, through peer and country reviews of its draft reports and through national representation at the sessions of both the Panel and its Working Groups. The following sections provide a brief overview of Australian activities in support of the work of the IPCC with particular emphasis on 1999-2001.