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. The 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/ technological/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 III (WGIII) of the IPCC and focuses on the mitigation
of climate change. It consists of 10 chapters covering the technological and
biological options to mitigate climate change, their costs and ancillary benefits,
the barriers to their implementation, and policies, measures and instruments
to overcome these barriers. 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 WGIII Technical Support Unit (TSU) 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 The Netherlands, Norway, Germany and South Africa, who
hosted drafting sessions in their countries, to the government of Ghana, who
hosted the 6th session of Working Group III for official consideration and acceptance
of the report in Accra, and again to the government of The Netherlands, who
funded the WGIII 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, to Dr. Sundararaman,
the Secretary of the IPCC and his staff for the secretarial support, and Professor
Ogunlade Davidson and Dr. Bert Metz, the Co-Chairmen of Working Group III, for
their skilful leadership of Working Group III through the production of this
report.
G.O.P. Obasi
Secretary-General
World Meteorological Organization
Executive Director
United Nations Environment Programme
and
Director-General
United Nations Office in Nairobi
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