1 Scope of the Report
1.1 Background
In 1998, Working Group (WG) III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) was charged by the IPCC Plenary for the Panel's Third Assessment
Report (TAR) to assess the scientific, technical, environmental, economic, and
social aspects of the mitigation of climate change. Thus, the mandate of the
Working Group was changed from a predominantly disciplinary assessment of the
economic and social dimensions on climate change (including adaptation) in the
Second Assessment Report (SAR), to an interdisciplinary assessment of the options
to control the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and/or enhance their sinks.
After the publication of the SAR, continued research in the area of mitigation
of climate change, which was partly influenced by political changes such as
the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997, has been undertaken and is reported on here.
The report also draws on a number of IPCC Special Reports1
and IPCC co-sponsored meetings and Expert Meetings that were held in 1999 and
2000, particularly to support the development of the IPCC TAR. This summary
follows the 10 chapters of the report.
|
