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The Role of Ipcc in Climate Change

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The Role of Ipcc in Climate Change
The Project
The Role of IPCC in Setting Climate Change Policy
This essay will critically evaluate the role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in setting climate change policy. In order to do this, its latest assessment report (IPCC 2007) will be highlighted. The physical science basis of climate change that IPCC relies on in influencing policy on climate change will be reviewed. IPCC's view of climate change will be shown to be the main stream view of climate change. The essay will also review alternative argument on climate change by other scientists such as Svenmark and Calder (2006). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an organization that was established in 1988 by two organizations namely the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) UPI)(IPCC 2008). Its mandate included the assessment of scientific information related to climate change, evaluation of the environmental and socio-economic consequences of climate change and the formulation of realistic response strategies (IPCC, 2007). Based on its mandate, it can be seen that IPCC was to act as the scientific powerhouse to generate evidence based information on climate change that United Nations and other countries and regional bodies will rely on to formulate their climate change policies.
Since its formation, IPCC has produced assessment reports (AR) of the scientific evidence related to climate change and formulated response strategies on actions the international community need to take in order to minimize the impact of climate change. It produced the first assessment report (AR 1) in 1990, AR 2 in 1995, AR 3 in 2001 and the latest one AR 4 in 2007. The 2007 report (AR 4) was the most comprehensive of its reports. It was produced in four different volumes and each volume was launched separately at different times throughout 2007 at different locations under the banner ‘Climate Change 2007.’ AR 4 confirms



References: Blackman S (2009) Top British Boffin : Time to ditch the climate consensus. Calder N (2007) An experiment that hints we were wrong on climate change. Foley S (2010) IPCC feels the heat as it is told to get its facts right. Coren M (2006) The science debate behind climate change. Watts A (2009) Climate ‘Men behaving badly – a short summary for laymen. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007. Synthesis for Policymakers. Summary for policymakers. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC (2008) Climate Change 2007. Synthesis Report. Geneva : IPCC. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC (2011) structure: how does the IPCC works? Geneva : iPCC. Page L (2009) CRU cherry picked Russian climate data. Singer P (2007) A fair deal on climate change. Accessed on 10/4/2011. Smith L and Stern L (2010) Stern N (2006) What is the economics of climate change? World Economics. 7 (2): 1-10. Svensmark H and Calder N (2007) The chilling Stars. A new theory of climate change. Cambrdge: Icons Books Ltd. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2010) United Nations climate change conference in Cancun. Bonn: UNFCCC. The Royal Society (2010) Climate Change: A Summary of the Science. London: TRS. Watts A (2009) Climategate ‘Mem behaving badly’ – a short summary for laymen.

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