CSL News & Events:

2007 News & Events

Solomon to Cochair Key Meeting of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report

25 January 2007

Susan Solomon, senior scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division, will cochair a key meeting to finalize the Summary for Policymakers text of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report of Working Group I entitled Climate Change 2007 - The Physical Science Basis. This meeting will be the 10th Session of IPCC Working Group I, 29 January - 1 February 2007, in Paris, France. The Summary will be released to the public on 2 February, the first such official release of final material associated with the 2007 IPCC Working Group I report.

Background: The IPCC Working Group I report will present the most up-to-date understanding on the science of climate change. The 2007 full report has been over three years in preparation and will update the previous findings published in 2001. It has been written by more than 600 scientists and reviewed by another 600 experts from 154 countries. The extensive review by experts and governments culminates with the line-by-line discussion and final agreement on the document's Summary for Policymakers in next week's meeting in Paris. NOAA scientists served as authors, contributors, and reviewers of the report. In addition to Solomon's role as Cochair of WGI, eight NOAA scientists served as lead authors or review editors of the report, including OAR scientists from CSD and GFDL.

The full 2007 report will be released in May.

Significance: The periodic IPCC Working Group I assessments communicate state-of-scientific-understanding on climate change. The participation and leadership of NOAA scientists in the IPCC WGI 2007 assessment is a key contribution in NOAA's Climate Goal and addresses NOAA's mission to provide timely, policy-relevant scientific information for decisionmakers.