Climate assessment: what's next?

The IPCC is not a UNFCCC body, but the UNFCCC's Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) considers the IPCC a main source of independent information. We believe that comprehensive IPCC reports every 5 to 6 years (which also require additional years to filter through the SBSTA) are not sufficient to adequately inform policy. In addition, key questions are likely to cut across the boundaries of the current Working Group (WG) structure of the IPCC: WG1 deals with the scientific understanding of the climate system; WG2 with climate-change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability; and WG3 with mitigation of climate change. Topics such as large-scale biofuel use and the regional and global costs of adapting to climate change will require better integration among the natural, economic, and social sciences and, hence, among WGs.

The IPCC could learn from an assessment process that is faster and more integrated and that supports the U.N. Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (UNCLRTAP). Both the UNFCCC and the UNCLRTAP went through an initial phase in which science was mainly used to provide the foundation for requesting action by the decision-makers. The UNCLRTAP has moved to the next stage, using science to support the identification and design of policy responses, while the UNFCCC is presently making that transition.