Chapter 7 Australian Participation in the IPCCC

Third Assessment Report

Broad agreement was reached at the Thirteenth Session of the IPCC on the division of responsibilities across the three Working Groups and this was fleshed out through subsequent Lead Author meetings and Bureau sessions into a detailed chapter structure.

The Third Assessment Report proceeded through the full drafting and review stages, as per the guidelines agreed in Costa Rica. As noted earlier, all three Working Group reports were finalised in the first quarter of 2001 with the final element, the Synthesis Report, submitted for approval to the 18th session of the IPCC in London in September 2001.

Australian scientists were engaged in the contributions of each Working Group as well as the Synthesis Report, as summarised for coordinating lead author, lead author and review editor categories in Table 7.1. Many more Australian experts participated as contributors.

The TAR, Climate Change 2001, was completed in 2001, and presented to the seventh UNFCCC Conference of Parties, at which it was agreed that the document should be used routinely as a useful reference for providing information for deliberations on agenda items of the Conference of the Parties.

Figure 7.4 The current Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Bureau.