Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Introduction
1.1. Context
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was created in
1988 under the auspices of the UN. Its aim is the scientific study of
the causes of the global warming observed over the course of the 20
th
Century, how it is likely to evolve in the future, its human and environmental
consequences, and, subsequently, to give rise to appropriate policy
decisions
1
.
At the end of September 2013, at a plenary meeting in Stockholm, the
IPCC presented a draft version of its fifth
assessment report from working
group 1
: “Climate Change 2013, The Physical Science Basis”. The
summary
for policymakers
, as it is known, was debated and approved, in turn
anticipating the approval of the report as a whole (October 2014,
Copenhagen). These two documents, AR5 (Fifth Assessment Report) and
SPM (Summary for Policy Makers)
2
embody the current expression of
1 The IPCC is not technically an international research body, like CERN. It is organized
around a secretariat. Its experts are scientists from around the world who analyze and evaluate
all of the research published in the field. Apart from issuing a report every five years, it
coordinates a number of different operations, such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison
Project (
CMIP
5:
Phase 5
).
2 The latter, of around 33 pages, is more well-known as it is more concise, and is approved in
its entirety by government representatives and the scientists who wrote the report.
