Climate change

Citation

(2001), "Climate change", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 10 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2001.07310eag.004

Climate change

Climate change

http://www.ipcc.ch/http://www.meto.gov.uk/sec5/CR-div/ipcc/wgJ// (Group I)www.usgcrp.gov/ipcc/ (Group II)www.rivm.nl/env/int/ipcc/ (Group IIII)

Recognizing the problems posed by potential global climate change, in 1988 the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assess the scientific, technical, and socio-economic information available for understanding the risk posed by human-induced climate change. The panel has not carried out new research but has reviewed published and peer-reviewed scientific technical literature. The IPCC encompasses three working groups and a task force:

1. 1.

   Working Group I assessed the scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change.

2. 2.

   Working Group II addressed the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change, negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it.

3. 3.

   Working Group III examined options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change.

The task force oversees the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Program.

Earlier this year, for the IPCC's Third Assessment, all three working groups released their final reports summarizing more than two years of work, and those documents are available from the Web sites above. Working Group I's contribution to the IPCC Third Assessment Report is entitled Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis; Group II's is Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability; and Group III's is Climate Change 2001: Mitigation. Each working group report is extensive; however, brief summaries intended to provide basic information to policy makers are available from each group's Web site. The complete Third Assessment Report will be a comprehensive and up-to-date appraisal of the policy-relevant scientific, technical, and socio-economic dimensions of climate change, focusing on new findings since the second report in 1995. It will also pay greater attention to the regional (in addition to the global) scale and include non-English literature.

In addition to the reports of the working groups, the IPCC Web site (www.ipcc.ch) also offers numerous on-line special reports, including:

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  "The regional impacts of climate change: an assessment of vulnerability".

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  "Aviation and the global atmosphere".

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  "Methodological and technological issues in technology transfer".

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  "Emissions scenarios".

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  "Land use, land use change and forestry".

Additional information about this major international effort is available from the IPCC Secretariat, World Meteorological Organization, 7 his Avenue de la Paix, PO Box 2300, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland; e-mail: ipcc-sec@gateway.wmo.ch

US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Changehttp://www.nacc.usgcrp.gov http://www.gcrio.org/NationalAssessment/water/water.pdfwww.pacinst.org/naw.html www.cop.noaa.gov

The US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, which contributed to the global assessment mentioned above, undertook a detailed appraisal of the consequences of climate change for the nation and examined possible mechanisms for adapting to such. The assessment surveyed these issues both by geographical region and by topic in order to produce a broad national synthesis entitled Climate Change Impacts on the United States: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. That report is available from the first Web site above. More detailed reports from studies of specific regions and issues include the final report of the mid-Atlantic regional assessment and final reports of the Water Sector Assessment Team, Water: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change for the Water Resources of the United States, available at the second and third addresses above, and the Coastal Sector Assessment Team, The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change on Coastal Areas and Marine Resources, available from the final URL. The report on consequences for the nation's water resources suggests that climate change may have serious impacts. It concludes that global warming has already resulted in substantial thawing of permafrost in the Alaska Arctic, unprecedented melting of mountain glaciers, an increase in sea level of 10-20cm, and significant alteration of water runoff patterns. Moreover, climate models project that temperatures could increase another 3-68C by the end of this century, seriously affecting US water resources in several ways:

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  Snowfall and snowmelt will be significantly affected in the western USA, leading to changes in weather patterns and the timing and magnitude of runoff.

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  Rising sea levels will threaten coastal aquifers and water supplies.

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  The risk of increased flooding may be as serious and widely distributed as the adverse impacts of droughts.

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  Changes associated with climate change could seriously threaten fish, other water species, and critical habitats such as wetlands.