Working Group III (IPCC Working Group I)

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Working Group III (WG III) of the IPCC focuses its work on the mitigation of climate change. The IPCC has the responsibility of providing policy makers with objective scientific and technical findings that are policy relevant but not policy prescriptive. The IPCC is aimed at serving as an honest broker between science and policy makers and other relevant stakeholders. The IPCC WG III assesses all relevant options for mitigating climate change through limiting or preventing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhancing activities that remove them from the atmosphere. WG III analyses the costs, benefits and risks of the different approaches to mitigation, considering also the available domestic instruments and policy measures as well as international arrangements. It is responsible for producing reports as part of IPCC's multi-volume Assessments. IPCC Assessments with Working Group III reports were released in 1990, 1995, 2001, and 2007. The next Working Group III report (for Assessment Report 5 or "AR5") is scheduled to be finalized in 2014.

IPCC Working Group III is composed of an international group of scientists. From July 12 -15, 2011, more than 200 scientists meet in Changwon, Korea for the first meeting of lead authors of the Working Group III contribution to AR5.

The reports of IPCC Working Groups have been among the most influential scientific reports on climate change

Background

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. It is open to all Members of the United Nations and the WMO.

The IPCC work is shared among three Working Groups, (Working Group I (IPCC Working Group III), Working Group II (IPCC Working Group III), Working Group III (IPCC Working Group III)), and the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventiories. Each of the groups are focused on a particular area relating to climate change. The activities of each Working Group and of the Task Force are coordinated and administrated by a Technical Support Unit.

Bureau

The WG IIIBureau is responsible for organization of the Working Group. The co-chairs of WG III work with the co-chairs of WGII(WGII (Impact and Adaptation), the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, and the IPCCchairs and vice-chairs to accomplish goals of the IPCC.

The WG III Bureau is run by three co-chairs: Ramon Pichs-Madruga (Cuba), Ottmar Edenhofer (Germany), and Youba Sokona (Mali). The bureau also has six vice chairs:Carlo Carraro (Italy), Antonina Ivanova (Mexico), Suzana Kahn Ribeiro (Brazil), Jim Skea (United Kingdom), Francis Yamba (Zambia), and Taha Zatari (Saudi Arabia).

Assessment Reports

First Assessment Report (1990)

The Contribution of Working Group III to the First Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was "Climate Change: The IPCC Response Strategies (1990)"

Subgroups Reports

Implementation Measures

Second Assessment Report (1995)

The Contribution of Working Group III to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was "Climate Change 1995: Economic and Social Dimensions of Climate Change". Full Report (PDF)

Third Assessment Report (2001)

The Contribution of Working Group III to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was "Climate Change 2001: Mitigation".

Appendices

Fourth Assessment Report (2007)

The Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report was "Climate Change 2007 - Mitigation of Climate Change" was launched on 2 February 2007 in Paris. WGIII's AR4 analyzes mitigation options for the main economic sectors in the near-term. It provides information on long-term mitigation strategies for various stabilization levels, paying special attention to implications of different short-term strategies for achieving long-term goals. It also addresses the relationship between mitigation and sustainable development.

Fifth Assessment Report (2014)

The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) will provide an update of knowledge on the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of climate change, with all information contributed by select authors from each of the working groups and task forces.

During its 9th Session (26-27 October 2009), the IPCC WGIII finalized and approved the chapter outlines of the WGIII contribution to the AR5. The WGIII outline, as well as those for Working Groups I and II, was then accepted by the 31st Session of the IPCC on 29 October 2009 in Bali, Indonesia. The approved outline is as follows:

I. INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1. Introductory Chapter

  • Lessons learned from AR4
  • New challenges for the AR5
  • Historical, current and future trends
  • The mitigation challenges

II. FRAMING ISSUES
Chapter 2. Integrated Risk and Uncertainty Assessment of Climate Change Response
Policies

  • Risk perception
  • Risk and uncertainty in climate change
  • Metrics of uncertainty and risk
  • Managing uncertainty, risk and learning
  • Tools for analyzing uncertainty and risk
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 3. Social, Economic and Ethical Concepts and Methods

  • Assessing methods of policy choice
  • Ethical and socio-economic principles
  • Metrics of costs and benefits
  • Economics, rights and duties
  • Justice, equity and responsibility
  • Behavioural economics and culture
  • Policy instruments and regulation
  • Technological change
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 4. Sustainable Development and Equity

  • Determinants, drivers and barriers
  • Mitigative capacity and mitigation
  • Links to adaptive capacity and adaptation
  • Development pathways
  • Consumption patterns and carbon accounting
  • Integration of framing issues in the context of sustainable development
  • Implications for subsequent chapters
  • Frequently asked questions

III. PATHWAYS FOR MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE
Chapter 5. Drivers, Trends and Mitigation

  • Global trends in stocks and flows of greenhouse gases and short-lived species
  • Key drivers of global change
  • Production, consumption and trade patterns
  • Contribution of technological change to mitigation
  • Contribution of behavioural change to mitigation
  • Co-benefits and tradeoffs of mitigation including air pollution
  • Carbon and radiation management and other geoengineering options including
  • environmental risks
  • The system perspective: linking sectors, technologies and consumption patterns
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 6. Assessing Transformation Pathways

  •  ? Tools of analysis
  •  ? Climate stabilization: Concepts, costs and implications for the macroeconomy, sectors
  • and technology portfolios, taking into account differences across regions
  •  ? Integrating long- and short-term perspectives
  •  ? Integrating technological and societal change
  •  ? Sustainable development and transformation pathways, taking into account differences
  • across regions
  •  ? Risks of transformation pathways
  •  ? Integrating sector analyses and transformation scenarios
  •  ? Frequently asked questions

Chapter 7. Energy Systems
All sections should consider regional specificities including as appropriate to developed and developing countries and economies in transition.

  • Energy production, conversion, transmission and distribution
  • New developments in emission trends and drivers
  • Resources and resource availability
  • Mitigation technology options and practices (including energy efficiency)
  • Infrastructure and systemic perspectives
  • Climate change feedback and interaction with adaptation
  • Technological, environmental and other risks and uncertainties; and social acceptability
  • Co-benefits, tradeoffs, spill-over effects
  • Barriers and opportunities (technological, physical, financial, institutional, cultural, legal, etc.)
  • Sustainable development and behavioural aspects
  • Costs and potentials
  • Gaps in knowledge and data
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 8. Transport
All sections should consider regional specificities including as appropriate to developed and developing countries and economies in transition.

  • Freight and passenger transport (land, air, sea and water)
  • New developments in emission trends and drivers
  • Mitigation technology options and practices (including energy efficiency)
  • Infrastructure and systemic perspectives
  • Climate change feedback and interaction with adaptation
  • Technological, environmental and other risks and uncertainties; and social acceptability
  • Co-benefits, tradeoffs, spill-over effects
  • Barriers and opportunities (technological, physical, financial, institutional, cultural, legal, etc.)
  • Sustainable development and behavioural aspects
  • Costs and potentials
  • Gaps in knowledge and data
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 9. Buildings
All sections should consider regional specificities including as appropriate to developed and developing countries and economies in transition.

  • Commercial, residential and public buildings
  • New developments in emission trends and drivers
  • Mitigation technology options and practices (including energy efficiency)
  • Infrastructure and systemic perspectives
  • Climate change feedback and interaction with adaptation
  • Technological, environmental and other risks and uncertainties; and social acceptability
  • Co-benefits, tradeoffs, spill-over effects
  • Barriers and opportunities (technological, physical, financial, institutional, cultural, legal, etc.)
  • Sustainable development and behavioural aspects
  • Costs and potentials
  • Gaps in knowledge and data
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 10. Industry
All sections should consider regional specificities including as appropriate to developed and developing countries and economies in transition.

  • New developments in extractive industries, manufacturing and services (including tourism)
  • New developments in emission trends and drivers
  • Material substitution, material reuse and waste
  • Mitigation technology options and practices (including efficiency improvements, household and industry waste)
  • Infrastructure and systemic perspectives
  • Climate change feedback and interaction with adaptation
  • Technological, environmental and other risks and uncertainties; and social acceptability
  • Co-benefits, tradeoffs, spill-over effects
  • Barriers and opportunities (technological, physical, financial, institutional, cultural, legal, etc.)
  • Sustainable development and behavioural aspects
  • Costs and potentials
  • Gaps in knowledge and data
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 11. Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU)
All sections should consider regional specificities including as appropriate to developed and developing countries and economies in transition.

  • Introduction to integrated assessment of AFOLU
  • Emission trends (including agricultural productivity) and drivers
  • Competition and opportunities for land-use (energy, food, feed and timber production; housing, nature conservation, biodiversity and other land uses)
  • Mitigation technologies and practices in forestry, agriculture (e.g. biochar) and livestock farming
  • Mitigation effectiveness (non-permanence: human and natural impacts; displacement; saturation)
  • Systemic perspectives (including integrated land-use assessment)
  • Synergies, tradeoffs and interactions with adaptation and other mitigation options
  • Climate change feedback, natural disturbance and extreme events
  • Environmental and other risks and uncertainties
  • Co-benefits, tradeoffs, spill-over effects
  • Opportunities and barriers (technological, physical, financial, institutional, cultural, legal, etc.)
  • Sustainable development and behavioural aspects
  • Costs and potentials
  • Gaps in knowledge and data
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 12. Human Settlements, Infrastructure and Spatial Planning
All sections should consider regional specificities including as appropriate to developed and developing countries and economies in transition.
[[Working Group III Plenary suggests that the WG III Bureau and the authors have the mandate to revisit the structure and the title of the bullets in this chapter based on the outcome of the Expert Meeting on “Human Settlements and Infrastructure” to be held in 2010.]]

  • Urbanization challenges and opportunities for climate change mitigation
  • Settlement structures, density, forms and lifecycle assessments
  • Infrastructure, spatial planning and mitigation
  • Lifestyle changes and efficiency
  • Waste
  • Water/energy nexus
  • Human settlements and climate change: Experiences across countries
  • Frequently asked questions

IV. ASSESSMENT OF POLICIES, INSTITUTIONS AND FINANCE
Chapter 13. International Cooperation: Agreements and Instruments

  • Introduction
  • Framing concepts and an assessment of means for international cooperation
  • International agreements: Examples and lessons for climate policy
  • Multilateral and bilateral agreements across different scales
  • Climate policy architectures
  • Mechanisms for technology and knowledge development, transfer, diffusion
  • Capacity building
  • Linkages between international and national policies
  • Linkages between international and regional cooperation
  • Interactions between climate change mitigation policy and trade
  • Performance assessment on policies and institutions including market mechanisms
  • Investment and finance
  • The role of public and private sectors and public-private partnership
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 14. Regional Development and Cooperation

  • Introduction
  • Opportunities and barriers of regional cooperation
  • Current development patterns and goals
  • Energy and development
  • Urbanization and development
  • Consumption and production patterns in the context of development
  • Low carbon development: Opportunities and barriers
  • Links between mitigation, adaptation and development
  • Investment and finance
  • The role of public and private sectors and public-private partnership
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 15. National and Sub-national Policies and Institutions

  • Introduction
  • Characteristics and classification of policy instruments and packages
  • Approaches and tools used to evaluate policies and institutions
  • Research and development policy
  • Assessment of the performance of policies and measures in developed and developing countries taking into account development level and capacity
  • Framework: Role of institutions and governance
  • Capacity building
  • National, state and local linkages
  • Links to adaptation
  • Synergies and tradeoffs among policies
  • Assessing policy design options
  • Investment and finance
  • The role of public and private sectors and public-private partnership
  • The role of stakeholders including NGOs
  • Frequently asked questions

Chapter 16: Cross-cutting Investment and Finance Issues

  • Financing low-carbon investments, opportunities, key-drivers and barriers
  • Financing developed countries’ mitigation activities
  • Financing mitigation activities in and for developing countries including for technology development, transfer and diffusion
  • Financing infrastructure and institutional arrangements
  • Synergies and tradeoffs between financing mitigation and adaptation
  • Directing and leveraging private financing
  • Innovative financing
  • Approaches and scale of financing at national, regional and international level in short-, mid- and long-term
  • Enabling environments
  • Frequently asked questions

Citation

Mangino, K. (2012). IPCC Working Group III. Retrieved from http://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/Working_Group_III_(IPCC_Working_Group_I)