Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

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Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is perceived as the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. In the 23 years since its founding, it has become a key framework for the exchange of scientific dialogue on climate change within the scientific community as well as across the science and policy arenas. This article provides an introduction to the IPCC (its establishment, structure, procedures, and publications) and briefly discusses the solutions proposed by the IPCC in the face of recent criticism and media scrutiny. The philosophical framework of the science/policy interface in which the IPCC functions is presented. Finally, this article concludes with a presentation of the challenges facing the IPCC in the ongoing preparation of its 5th assessment report including exploration of the entire solutions space, ensuring a comparable set of scenarios across IPCC working groups and a consistent treatment of uncertainty.

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Kristin Seyboth is Senior Scientist at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III (WG III - Mitigation of Climate Change) Technical Support Unit. She was the sole manager of the IPCC's Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation and is currently co-coordinating WG III's contribution to the IPCC's 5th Assessment Report. Prior to joining the IPCC, Kristin managed the Operating Agent function of the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Renewable Energy Technology Deployment implementing agreement. She has co-authored a number of books on renewable energy technologies and the policies that support their development and deployment under the auspices of the IPCC and the IEA. Kristin received her Master of Science in Environmental Management and Policy at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, Sweden and her Bachelor of Art in Biology from Bucknell University, USA.

Ottmar Edenhofer is Deputy Director and Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Furthermore, he is Professor of the Economics of Climate Change at the Technical University Berlin and Co-Chair of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as designated director of the newly founded Mercator Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change and Advisor to the World Bank in questions of economic growth and climate protection. At PIK he is leading Research Domain III - Sustainable Solutions - that focuses on research in the field of the Economics of Atmospheric Stabilisation. He is member of the Science-Industry Cooperation and member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Workgroup Climate, Energy and Environment. He has published articles in Science, Nature, Energy Journal, Climatic Change, Energy Economics, Energy Policy and other peer-reviewed journals and authored a number of books. He was a Lead Author for the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC from 2004 until 2007 and recently co-edited the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN). Ottmar Edenhofer's research explores the impact of induced technological change on mitigation costs and mitigation strategies, as well as the design of instruments for climate and energy policy and the science-policy interface.

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