What is the IPCC?
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific intergovernmental body set up by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988. The IPCC was established to provide the decision-makers and others interested in climate change with an objective source of information about climate change. The IPCC does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate related data or parameters. In short, the IPCC reviews the latest climate change literature to help increase our understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change and options for adaptation and mitigation. These reports provide scientific technical and socio-economic information in a policy-relevant but policy neutral way to decision makers.The findings of the first IPCC Assessment Report of 1990 played a decisive role in leading to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was opened for signature in the Rio de Janeiro Summit in 1992 and entered into force in 1994. It provides the overall policy framework for addressing the climate change issue. The IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 provided key input for the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Third Assessment Report of 2001 as well as Special and Methodology Reports provided further information relevant for the development of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. The IPCC continues to be a major source of information for the negotiations under the UNFCCC.
As United Nations body, the IPCC work aims at the promotion of the United Nations human development goals.
What are the Millennium Development Goals?
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions.Goal No. 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Climate change is more than an environmental issue as it impacts food security (agriculture and fisheries are negatively impacted) and exacerbates poverty in already marginalized communities in small island states and the Arctic, creating increased dependence on expensive imported food that lacks the nutritional value of traditional food sources. More violent storms destroy crops and infrastructure further increasing poverty and the need for expensive reconstruction.
Goal No. 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal No. 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Increased poverty results in diminished opportunities for women and girls, poverty results in increased violence against women.
Goal No. 4: Reduce child mortality
Climate change does the opposite. It increases extreme poverty, threatens access to safe drinking water, reduces access to healthy food thereby increasing child mortality.
Goal No. 5: Improve maternal health
Goal No. 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Climate change will hasten the spread of malaria in particular.
Goal No. 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Dying coral reefs, changing ocean currents, more severe and devastating storms out of season are just some of the symptoms of climate change already affecting small island nations in the Pacific.
