Up in the Air

By Bill Polits

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by two arms of the United Nations: the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). One of the main activities of the IPCC is to publish reports related to the issue of man-made climate change for that are relevant to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Headed since his election in 2002 by Rajendra K. Pachauri, the IPCC does no independent research, but rather aggregates and presents the findings based on the leading scientific studies on the issue of climate change. One of the main activities of the IPCC is publishing special reports which are relevant to the activities on the UNFCCC (readers of my previous post on the topic of the UNFCCC will recall that this body is responsible for the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Conference on climate change). Known as IPCC Assessment Reports, the IPCC has published four major iterations: in 1990, 1995, 2001 and 2007. The most recent report, known as the Fourth Assessment Report, had input from thousands of contributors from over 130 countries.

There is plenty of criticism of the IPCC from all sides of the climate issue. Charges have been made that the panel’s assessments reflect too much politics and too little science. There are many in the climate science community who feel that the assessment reports of the panel are too conservative with respect to the severity of the effects of climate change. The reports also have taken flak for being outdated by the time they are issued, having been superseded by more recent research.

The IPCC, along with former US Vice President Al Gore, received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Impact on Fire Safety

Since the IPCC represents the science behind what is brewing at the upcoming Copenhagen Conference, it makes sense to check out the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report so you can draw your own conclusions about the severity of the issues at hand and therefore gain a deeper understanding of the forces at work behind the impending changes to the fire safety industry.