Overview: Mitigation of Climate Change UNFCCC COP 6 Part Two Special Event, July 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report

Structure and operation of IPCC Plenary: all (>150) countries Bureau, Secretariat, TSUs Wg IWg IIWg IIITFInv Scientific authors (hundreds of CLAs, LAs, CAs) housands Expert and Government Reviewers (thousands)

The TAR WG 3 process Broad array of disciplines, geographical balance of authors: 150 lead authors, 80 contributing authors, over 300 reviewers, 64 authors from developing countries 3 year process which involves four lead author meetings and several chapter meetings One expert review and an expert/government review 19 review editors were involved to ensure the inclusion of review comments SPM was approved and underlying report accepted unanimously by IPCC WG 3 plenary in Accra, Ghana, March, 2001

Inputs to the Report The assessment used over 4000 peer reviewed literature and publicly available relevant reports Previous IPCC reports, including Special Report on Aviation and the Atmosphere, Technology Transfer, Emission Scenarios, and LULUCF The results of ten expert meetings on specialised topics

Structure of the report (1) Setting the stage: climate change and sustainable development GHG mitigation scenarios and implications Technological and economic potentials –energy and industrial options –biological options Barriers and opportunities

Structure of the report (2) Policies, measures and instruments Mitigation cost and ancillary benefits –Costing methodologies –Global, regional and national costs and ancillary benefits –Sector costs and ancillary benefits Decision making frameworks

Main messages (1) There is a strong link between sustainable development, environmental management and climate change mitigation Technologies are presently available, in the short term, to stop the growth of global GHG emissions and, in the long term, to limit climate change impacts

Main messages (2) The costs of implementing the Kyoto Protocol can be kept low, provided implementation is done efficiently; Long-term costs depend on the choice of stabilisation level, baseline and the timing of mitigation

Main messages (3) The problem of controlling emissions is to overcome the many political, economic, social and behavioural barriers to implement mitigation options Decision making on climate change is risk management; for low level stabilisation, early mitigation action is needed Integrating mitigation and sustainable development policies improves the prospect of achieving stabilization and sustainable development goals