Press Release No. 825
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Secretary-General Michel Jarraud pledged the continued support of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of its 188 Members, which have been the principal providers of the scientific and technical information underpinning IPCC assessments. Today WMO doubles efforts to provide better climate prediction for societal benefits. The World Climate Conference-3 in 2009 devoted to climate predictions will help decision-makers to build on progress made by the science.
Mr Jarraud recalled that the IPCC, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, originated from the First World Climate Conference organized by WMO in 1979 in the light of climate findings. “While it is widely recognized today that human activities are modifying climate at an increasingly alarming rate, such was not the case in 1976 when WMO issued the first authoritative statement on the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the potential impacts on the Earth's climate”, Mr Jarraud recalled. Very intensive scientific work followed that led to the co-establishment in 1988 of the IPCC by WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The WMO Secretary-General underlined the need for the “increasing involvement of scientists from both developed and developing countries in all domains where the best expertise will be required to meet the challenges of global climate change”.
The IPCC First Assessment Report was released in 1990, providing guidance for the Second World Climate Conference, which was held in the same year and gave a boost to the negotiations that resulted in the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and in the establishment in 1992 of the Global Climate Observing System to facilitate the availability of systematic observations needed for authoritative climate change studies.
Today, after years of raising the attention of the global community to changes in the climate, the WMO is now focused on providing better information and tools to adapt to these expected changes. To set the stage for a new era in forecasting, WMO is organizing with partners the World Climate Conference-3 (WCC-3), which will be held in Geneva, from 31 August to 4 September 2009. The Conference will bring together providers and users of climate predictions in order to enhance climate resilient decision-making. The WMO Secretary-General is “confident that it will be as successful as the two previous conferences”.
The key IPCC 4AR messages have served as the basis for international mobilization that culminated in December 2007 at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali. Mr Jarraud pledged WMO’s continued support and expertise for ongoing efforts to achieve appropriate agreements extending beyond the Kyoto protocol and to define the relevant long-term strategies.
He called for capacity-building in the least developed and other vulnerable countries, in particular in the use of early warning systems within their natural disaster risk reduction activities. The Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States and other vulnerable nations will be among those hit earliest and hardest by the impacts of climate change on water resources management, food security and health, in particular in Africa. While they are clearly among those least responsible for generating the climate change issue, these countries have insufficient resources to prepare accordingly.
Other speakers at the IPCC 20th anniversary ceremony in Geneva included: Mr Moritz Leuenberger, Federal Councilor and Former President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Laurent Moutinot, President of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, Mr Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, and Mr Roberto Acosta, representing the UNFCCC Executive Secretary.
For more information please contact:
at WMO Ms Carine Richard-Van Maele, Chief, Communications and Public Affairs,
WMO. Tel.: +41 (0)22 730 83 15; cpa[at]wmo.int
or Ms Gaëlle Sévenier, Press Officer, Tel. +41 (0) 22 730 8417.