The Ipcc And Its Working Groups Essay Examples

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC is the principal initiative that analyzes and evaluates the world’s climate system. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) founded IPCC back in 1988 to address the issues regarding climate change. Membership is open for all members of the United Nations and WMO. Its main purpose is to aid governments and policy makers in coming up with contingency plans to deal with the effects of climate change in their respective countries. Basically, it is similar to a database as it collects and synthesizes information on climate change from contributors worldwide. However, also like a database, the IPCC does not carry out researches nor does it observe, firsthand, climate change.
The IPCC is scientific and intergovernmental by nature (American Meteorological Society). Currently, there are 195 countries that are member of the IPCC. Thousands of volunteer scientists from these countries contribute to IPCC work. There are three Working Groups and the Task Force working under the IPCC. Working Group I deal with the physical effects and aspects of climate change such as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, changes in land and ocean temperatures, and the rate and amount of rainfall. Working Group II focuses on the socio-economic aspect of adapting to climate change. It is concerned with the natural resources that should be distributed to people. Working Group III comes up with possible solutions to lessen the effects of climate change. It deals with the mitigation of the harmful effects of climate change. The Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI) developed and maintains the software that aids in the presentation of the calculated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Aside from the software, the TFI also developed the Emission Factor Database.

Works Cited:

American Meteorological Society. Our Changing Climate: Introduction to Climate Science. American Meteorological Society, 2014. Web. 7 Feb. 2015.