Inside Science & Impacts
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. The Fourth Assessment report was released in three installments over the course of 2007, with the final synthesis report published in November 2007. Details on the most current release, including a Pew summary and statement, can be found below.
IPCC Summary For Policymakers to the Fourth Assessment Report
To view each working group's report, as well as Pew statements and related content, click on the working group's title below
- Summary for Policymakers, Release Date: November 17, 2007
- Working Group III - "Mitigation of Climate Change", Release Date: May 4, 2007
- Working Group II - "Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability", Release Date: April 6, 2007
- Working Group I - "The Physical Science Basis", Release Date: February 2, 2007
To view published installments in their entirety, visit the IPCC website.
Scientists from all over the world contributed to the findings discussed in the Fourth Assessment Report. For more information on the work of some of these scientists, visit: National Center for Atmospheric Research.
About the IPCC
In 1988, recognizing the problem of global warming, two UN agencies, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC does not conduct independent research, rather it convenes climate experts from around the world every five to seven years in order to synthesize the latest climate research findings in peer reviewed and published scientific/technical literature. Visit the IPCC website: www.ipcc.ch.
About the Fourth Assessment Report
The IPCC issued comprehensive assessments in 1990, 1996, and 2001; its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) will be released in installments during 2007. The AR4 is the most comprehensive synthesis of climate change science to date. Experts from more than 130 countries are contributing to this assessment, which represents six years of work. More than 450 lead authors have received input from more than 800 contributing authors, and an additional 2,500 experts reviewed the draft documents.
AR4 will comprise three sections, or working groups, that deal with the scientific basis of global warming (Working Group I), its consequences (Working Group II), and options for slowing the trend (Working Group III). The IPCC will release summaries of the three working group documents over the course of 2007, culminating in the publication of the final “synthesis report” at the end of the year.