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Preface
We are pleased to present the third volume of the Third Assessment Report (TAR)
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prepared by Working
Group III: Climate Change 2001: Mitigation. The IPCC has been established jointly
by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) to assess all available factual information on the science,
the impacts, and the economics of climate change and on the adaptation/mitigation
options to address climate change.
At its 14th Session in 1997 in the Maldives, the IPCC agreed on the development
of the TAR. Working Group III was charged to assess the scientific, technological,
environmental, economic, and social aspects of the mitigation of climate change.
Thus, the mandate of the Working Group was broadened in the current report from
a predominantly disciplinary assessment of the Economic and Social Dimensions
on Climate Change (including adaptation) in the Second Assessment Report (SAR).
This report summarizes the state of knowledge covered in previous IPCC reports,
but primarily assesses information generated since the SAR, recognizing that
climate change is a global issue, but emphasizing the assessment of the sectoral
and regional aspects of climate change mitigation. The assessment focuses on
the policy-relevant questions of today. It also draws on the IPCC Special Reports
on Aviation and the Atmosphere, on Methodological and Technological Issues in
Technology Transfer, on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry, and Emissions
Scenarios that were published in 1999 and 2000. The report, in accordance with
the mandate given to Working Group III, explicitly places climate change mitigation
in the broader context of development, equity, and sustainability. It draws
on a broad set of literature also covering the social sciences and acknowledges
different views on the linkages between climate change mitigation and sustainable
development policies.
The report has been written by almost 150 lead and co-ordinating lead authors,
some 80 contributing authors and 18 review editors from developed countries,
developing countries, countries with economies in transition, and international
organizations, who put in an enormous amount of time and effort. It has been
reviewed by more than 300 experts from around the world, individually as well
as through governments.
To involve experts beyond the writing teams, discuss issues which to date received
insufficient attention to address current policy questions properly, and to
allow for interaction with the writing teams of the other two Working Groups,
Working Group III sponsored various Expert Meetings and Workshops, including:
- IPCC Regional Workshop on Integrated Assessment, Kadoma, Zimbabwe, 22-28
November 1998;
- 1st IPCC Expert Meeting on Climate Change and its Linkages with Development,
Equity, and Sustainability, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 27-29 April 1999;
- Joint IPCC/TEAP Expert Meeting on Options for the Limitation of Emissions
of HFCs and PFCs, Petten, Netherlands, 26-28 May 1999;
- IPCC Expert Meeting on Economic Impacts of Mitigation Measures, The Hague,
Netherlands, 27-28 May 1999;
- IPCC Expert Meeting on Stabilization and Mitigation Scenarios, Copenhagen,
Denmark, 2-4 June 1999;
- IPCC Expert Meeting on Costing Methodologies, Tokyo, Japan, 28 June-1 July
1999;
- IPCC Expert Meeting on Sectoral Economic Impacts, Eisenach, Germany, 14-15
February 2000;
- 2nd IPCC Expert Meeting on Development, Equity, and Sustainability, Havana,
Cuba, 23-25 February 2000;
- IPCC Expert Meeting on Society, Behaviour and Climate Change Mitigation,
Karlsruhe, Germany, 21-22 March 2000;
- IPCC Co-sponsored Expert Meeting on Ancillary Benefits, Washington DC, United
States, 27-29 March 2000.
We are grateful to the governments of Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands,
Denmark, Norway, Japan, Germany and Cuba for making these meetings possible
in collaboration with the local organisers. Proceedings of these meetings have
been published or will be published in 2001. The writing teams of this report
met four times to draft the report and discuss the results of the two consecutive
formal IPCC review rounds, in Bilthoven (Netherlands, December 1998), Lillehammer
(Norway, September 1999), Eisenach (Germany, February 2000) and Cape Town (South
Africa, August 2000). In addition, several individual chapter team meetings,
writing team teleconferences, and interactions with the UNFCCC SBSTA process
contributed to the contents of the report.
According to the IPCC Procedures, the Summary for Policymakers of this report
has been approved in detail by governments at the IPCC Working Group III Plenary
Meeting in Accra, Ghana from 28 February to 3 March 2001. During the approval
process the lead authors confirmed that the agreed text of the Summary for Policymakers
is fully consistent with the underlying full report and technical summary, which
has been accepted by governments, but remains the full responsibility of the
authors.
We would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Netherlands’
government in supporting the Technical Support Unit of Working Group III and
the IPCC activities of Co-chair Dr. Bert Metz, and the IPCC Secretariat for
supporting the activities of Co-chair Professor Ogunlade Davidson through the
IPCC Trust Fund. This report would not have been possible without the tireless
efforts of the staff of the Technical Support Unit, Dr. Rob Swart (Head of TSU),
Dr. Jiahua Pan, Anita Meier, José Hesselink, Angelique Martens, Remko
Ybema, Ton van Dril, Tom Kram, Jan Willem Martens, Sascha van Rooijen and Dr.
Peter Kuikman. We also express our gratitude to John Ormiston, Paul Schwartzman
and Ruth de Wijs for the copy-editing, reference editing and proofreading of
the document and to Martin Middelburg for preparing the final lay-out and the
graphics of the report.
We, as co-chairs of Working Group III, together with the other members of the
Bureau of Working Group III, the Lead Authors, and the Technical Support Unit,
hope that this report will assist decision-makers in governments and the private
sector as well as other interested readers in the academic community and the
general public to be better informed about climate change mitigation in support
of appropriate response measures.
Ogunlade Davidson and Bert Metz
Co-Chairs IPCC Working Group III on Mitigation of Climate Change
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