The IPCC gained full recognition in the year 1988 under the sponsorship of the United Nations Environment Programme ‘UNEP’ and the World Meteorological Organization ‘WMO’with a goal of evaluating “the scientific, technical and socio-economic data related to the understanding of the risks of climate change-induced by humans.
Every five to seven years, the conglomeration of scientists from all around the world provide the most recent and important information regarding climate changes by the help of IPCC. These assessment reports are requested by the Governments through the intergovernmental process and the content is purposely policy-related but leads clear of any policy-prescriptive statements. Representatives of Government work with resource persons to synthesize the summary for policymakers “SPM†which highlights the most important developments in language that is accessible to political leaders of the world. Scholars, academics and students can review the chapters and supplementary materials deeply for a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the evidence.
Assessments of an inter-governmental panel on climate change
Since its establishment, IPCC has issued comprehensive assessments in the years 1990, 1996, 2001, 2007 and 2013, respectively. Through these assessments, all the methodology reports, technical papers, and periodic reports evaluating particular impacts of climate change are produced. “The new ones cope with: seas and ice cover, land loss, 1.5°C warming effects,â€.
Among all the assessment reports, the 5th assessment report ‘AR5’, is the most comprehensive one, which covered all the major points. Resource persons from more than 80 countries contributed to this fifth assessment report, which projected work of six years. More than 830 lead authors, reviewers and editors relied on the work of more than 1000 contributors. About 140,000 review comments were provided by about 2,000 expert reviewers.
The socio-economic impacts of climate change and the challenges for sustainable development were evaluated more abundantly by the 5th assessment report ‘AR5’ than all the previous assessments. The assessments of the IPCC are developed and accepted by its members by the inclusive process which ensures exceptional scientific credibility. Due to this reason, the fifth assessment report ‘AR5’are the basis of providing information to domestic and international climate policies. Several countries require the IPCC in their national climate assessments. For example, the November 2017 release of the first volume of the United States fourth National Climate Assessment ‘NCA4’, also known as the assessments Climate Science Special Report ‘CSSR’.
Structure of inter-governmental panel on climate change:
The IPCC was categorized into three working groups, a number of task forces, or special committees, and a tiny Geneva secretariat. For the fifth assessment report ‘AR5’, the Working Group I summed up the physical science basis of climate change. Working Group II spoke to about the susceptibility of human and natural systems to climate change, that is, the negative and positive impacts of global warming and options for adapting to the climate changes. The Working Group III analyzed the methods for removing heat energy from the atmosphere and examined other means of reducing the warming trend along with the related economic issues.