ABSTRACT
Global climate change has, since the late 1980s, become an issue of critical international significance. It was quickly recognised that a response to the problem demanded the best possible co-operation between nations, and some firm agreement on the scientific nature of climate change upon which impacts could then be calculated and response strategies based. To this end, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (‘IPCC’) was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. Its mandate contained three primary objectives: (1) to assess the state of existing scientific knowledge on climate change; (2) to examine the environmental, economic and social impacts of climate change; and (3) to formulate realistic response strategies.1These objectives resulted in the creation of three separate working groups. Working Group I is to concentrate on assessing available information on climate change, in particular that arising from human activities.2 Working Group II’s task is to consider knowledge concerning the various environmental and human welfare related impacts of climate change. Working Group III was left to analyse response options in the form of mitigation and adaptation strategies. This intial structure changed slightly in 1992, following a review of the IPCC’s work. Since then, Working Group II has increased its mandate to include review of the feasibility of adaptation and mitigation strategies, whereas Working Group III has been left to focus primarily on economic and social dimensions of climate change.3
