Preface

This volumes comprises the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment (AR4) and contains a Summary for Policymakers, a Technical Summary, the chapters of the Assessment and various annexes. The scope, content and procedures followed are described in the Introduction which follows.

Acknowledgements

This Report is the product of the work of many scientists who acted as Authors, Reviewers or Editors (details are given in the Introduction, Section E). We would like to express our sincere thanks to them for their contribution, and to their institutions for supporting their participation.

We thank the members of the Working Group II Bureau (Edmundo de Alba Alcarez, Abdelkader Allali, Lucka Kajfe?-Bogataj, Geoff Love, John Stone and Jean-Pascal van Ypersele), for carrying out their duties with diligence and commitment.

Costs of the Technical Support Unit (TSU) and of Dr Parry were covered by the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The TSU was based in the Met Office Hadley Centre in the UK. We thank David Warrilow (Defra), Dave Griggs and John Mitchell (Met Office) for their support through these agencies.

Four meetings of Authors were held during the preparation of the Report, and the governments of Austria, Australia, Mexico and South Africa, through their Focal Points, kindly agreed to act as hosts. The Approval Session of the Working Group II contribution to the Fourth Assessment was held in Brussels at the generous invitations of the Government of Belgium, through Martine Vanderstraeten, and the European Community, through Lars Mueller. We thank all these governments, institutions and individuals for their hospitality and hard work on behalf of the Working Group II process.

We thank the IPCC Secretary, Renate Christ, and the Secretariat staff Jian Liu, Rudie Bourgeois, Annie Courtin, Joelle Fernandez and Carola Saibante for their efficient and courteous attention to Working Group II needs; and Marc Peeters, WMO Conference Officer, for his work on the organisation of the Brussels Approval Meeting.

Thanks go to ProClim (Forum for Climate and Global Change) and Marilyn Anderson for producing the index to this Report.

Last, but by no means least, we acknowledge the exceptional commitment of the members of the Technical Support Unit throughout the preparation of the Report: Jean Palutikof, Paul van der Linden, Clair Hanson, Norah Pritchard, Chris Sear, Carla Encinas and Kim Mack.

Rajendra Pachauri

Chair IPCC

Martin Parry

Co-Chair IPCC Working Group II

Osvaldo Canziani

Co-Chair IPCC Working Group II