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Revision as of 09:32, 15 January 2003 by Eloquence (talk | contribs) (preparing new article on Leipzig Dec)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations, the World Meteorological Organization WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It is an environmental organization led by government scientists, but also involving several hundred academic scientists and researchers from many nations. The IPCC monitors the available information about climate change and has published four major reports reviewing the latest climate science.
The IPCC was one of the forces behind the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and in 1996 produced a report called Climate Change 1995 which claimed to have found proof for anthopogenic global warming. The report is generally considered the main evidence for global warming.
Political Consensus and Scientific Reporting
The IPCC maintains that it represents a "scientific consensus" which supports the views in the Policymaker's Summary its biennial reports include. This contention has been disputed in the form of the Leipzig Declaration, which in turn has been criticized as a public relations stunt.
A Dec. 20, 1995, Reuters report quoted British scientist Keith Shine, one of IPCC's lead authors, discussing the IPCC Policymakers’ Summary: "We produce a draft, and then the policymakers go through it line by line and change the way it is presented.... It's peculiar that they have the final say in what goes into a scientists' report."
Leadership
Robert Watson headed the IPCC until being voted out in May 2002.
See: IPCC Policymakers' Summary
Links: