Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
first IPCC assessment was due only two years after
the creation of the organization, and required a huge
amount of work to produce in so short a time. The team
had to gather and analyze the data, create a credible
scienti
The
c peer-review system, and get the report through
its parent UN agencies and out to the world. The report
on the science of climate change (IPCC Working Group
I or WG I) was broadly accepted in the science commu-
nity. The report on expected impacts of climate change
(WG II) encountered some scienti
c argument, while the
report on responses (WG III) wandered into the policy
area and ran into serious troubles with the IPCC
sUN
sponsor who thought that policy was their job. The policy
part was removed to the UNFCCC organization itself,
and the IPCC remains today as the main organization
responsible for scienti
'
c and technical analysis of the
issues. It is respected by governments, non-governmental
organizations, and the science community. The process of
producing these reports is complicated but the output
of the IPCC has come to be trusted by all the signers
of the UNFCCC, which means most of the members of
the UN.
After
and the signing of the UNFCCC, more
formality was brought to the assessment process. The
assessments are now prepared by a large group of experts
who are nominated by signatory countries. The only way,
for example, that a US scientist can become a member of
an assessment team is by nomination by the US govern-
ment or some other country (any signer country can
nominate anyone). Although the administration of US
President G. W. Bush was not noted for believing in the
urgency of action on climate change, it did nominate the
