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Foreword
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was jointly
established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and
the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988. Its terms
of reference include (i) to assess available scientific and socio-economic
information on climate change and its impacts and on the options
for mitigating climate change and adapting to it and (ii) to provide,
on request, scientific/technical/socio-economic advice to the
Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). From 1990, the IPCC has
produced a series of Assessment Reports, Special Reports, Technical
Papers, methodologies and other products that have become standard
works of reference, widely used by policymakers, scientists and
other experts.
This volume, which forms part of the Third Assessment Report
(TAR), has been produced by Working Group I (WGI) of the IPCC
and focuses on the science of climate change. It consists of 14
chapters covering the physical climate system, the factors that
drive climate change, analyses of past climate and projections
of future climate change, and detection and attribution of human
influences on recent climate.
As is usual in the IPCC, success in producing this report has
depended first and foremost on the knowledge, enthusiasm and co-operation
of many hundreds of experts worldwide, in many related but different
disciplines. We would like to express our gratitude to all the
Co-ordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors, Contributing Authors,
Review Editors and Reviewers. These individuals have devoted enormous
time and effort to produce this report and we are extremely grateful
for their commitment to the IPCC process. We would like to thank
the staff of the WGI Technical Support Unit and the IPCC Secretariat
for their dedication in co-ordinating the production of another
successful IPCC report. We are also grateful to the governments,
who have supported their scientists’ participation in the IPCC
process and who have contributed to the IPCC Trust Fund to provide
for the essential participation of experts from developing countries
and countries with economies in transition. We would like to express
our appreciation to the governments of France, Tanzania, New Zealand
and Canada who hosted drafting sessions in their countries, to
the government of China, who hosted the final session of Working
Group I in Shanghai, and to the government of the United Kingdom,
who funded the WGI Technical Support Unit.
We would particularly like to thank Dr Robert Watson, Chairman
of the IPCC, for his sound direction and tireless and able guidance
of the IPCC, and Sir John Houghton and Prof. Ding Yihui, the Co-Chairmen
of Working Group I, for their skillful leadership of Working Group
I through the production of this report.
G.O.P. Obasi
Secretary General
World Meteorological Organization
K. Töpfer
Executive Director
United Nations Environment Programme
and
Director-General
United Nations Office in Nairobi
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