Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Technical summary

Nov 2007

The main aim of this report is to assess options for mitigating climate change. Several aspects link climate change with development issues. This report explores these links in detail, and illustrates where climate change and sustainable development are mutually reinforcing. Economic development needs, resource endowments and mitigative and adaptive capacities differ across regions. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to the climate change problem, and solutions need to be regionally differentiated to reflect different socio-economic conditions and, to a lesser extent, geographical differences. Although this report has a global focus, an attempt is made to differentiate the assessment of scientific and technical findings for the various regions.
Given that mitigation options vary significantly between economic sectors, it was decided to use the economic sectors to organize the material on short- to medium-term mitigation options. All relevant aspects of sectoral mitigation options, such as technology, cost, policies etc., are discussed together, to provide the user with a comprehensive discussion of the sectoral mitigation options.
Consequently, the report has four parts. Part A (Chapters 1 and 2) includes the introduction and sets out the frameworks to describe mitigation of climate change in the context of other policies and decision-making. It introduces important concepts (e.g., risk and uncertainty, mitigation and adaptation relationships, distributional and equity aspects and regional integration) and defines important terms used throughout the report.
Part B (Chapter 3) assesses long-term stabilization targets, how to get there and what the associated costs are, by examining mitigation scenarios for ranges of stability targets. The relation between adaptation, mitigation and climate change damage avoided is also discussed, in the light of decision-making regarding stabilization.
Part C (Chapters 4–10) focuses on the detailed description of the various sectors responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the short- to medium-term mitigation options and costs in these sectors, the policies for achieving mitigation, the barriers to getting there and the relationship with adaptation and other policies that affect GHG emissions.
Part D (Chapters 11–13) assesses cross-sectoral issues, sustainable development and national and international aspects. Chapter 11 covers the aggregated mitigation potential, macro-economic impacts, technology development and transfer, synergies, and trade-offs with other policies and cross-border influences (or spill-over effects). Chapter 12 links climate mitigation with sustainable development. Chapter 13 assesses domestic climate policies and various forms of international cooperation. This Technical Summary has an additional Chapter 14, which deals with gaps in knowledge.

By: Working Group III - IPCC Fourth Assessment Report

 
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