Science FAQs

Question 24:

What is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?

Recognising the problem of global climate change, in 1988 the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The role of the IPCC is to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the threat of human-induced climate change. The IPCC does not carry out new research nor does it make climate-related measurements. It bases its assessments mainly on published and peer-reviewed scientific literature.

The IPCC has produced comprehensive assessment reports on the status of global climate change, with the Fourth Assessment Report released in 2007. Hundreds of the world's leading climate scientists, including many Australian experts, contributed to the production of these reports, which provide the authoritative, consensus account of global climate change.

References

• Australian Bureau of Meteorology, The Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change
  www.bom.gov.au/info/GreenhouseEffectAndClimateChange.pdf
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis
  WGI contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report www.ipcc.ch/
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, WGII contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report www.ipcc.ch/
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2007: Mitigation, WG III contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
  www.ipcc.ch/
• Dr Barrie Pittock (Editor), Climate Change—An Australian Guide to the Science and Potential Impacts, Australian Greenhouse Office 2003 www.greenhouse.gov.au/science/guide
• Prof. Will Steffen, 2006, Stronger Evidence but New Challenges: Climate Change Science 2001-2005, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australian Greenhouse Office
  www.greenhouse.gov.au