IPCC Panel comes to Bergen, Norway

--That the panel chooses to come to Bergen to work on the report contributes to consolidate Norway´s reputation as a leading nation within climate research, says Eystein Jansen, director of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and one of the lead authors of the report.

Clear trend
The IPCC report is the scientific document politicians all over the world relate to when it comes to climate change issues. Although the report won´t be published until 2007, the trend from recent research is clear:
-- New results support what has been indicated in the previous IPCC report, issued in 2001. We are experiencing man-induced climate changes and we will have to face the problems connected with global warming for many years to come, says Eystein Jansen.

Norway strongly represented
Eystein Jansen is lead author of the chapter on past climates (palaeoclimate) and coordinates the input from ten co-authors. Input from other scientists will be included upon the lead author´s request.
Norway has several scientists contributing to the IPCC report. One of these is Christoph Heinze, also from the Bjerknes Centre, who investigates oceanic uptake of CO2. Other co-authors representing Norway are Cecilie Mauritzen from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Terje Berntsen from CICERO and Gunnar Myhre from the University of Oslo.
-- Norway has a total of 5 co-authors in the report, more than any other Nordic country. This is a clear indication that Norway as a nation plays an important role in climate research, says Jansen.

Very serious
The chair of the IPCC, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri of India, is one of the guests coming to the Solstrand Hotel in Bergen in June. He recently stated to the Financial Express that the largest threat to the present and future generations, is not terrorism but climate change. Dr. Pachauri pointed out that it is essential that the public media exert pressure on governments to avoid becoming paralyzed regarding global warming issues.
-- We have increased the Earth's temperature by 0,6 degrees Celsius in the 20th century, and our predictions indicate a further increase between 1,4 - 5,8 degrees C in the current century. This is very serious, said Dr. Pachauri to the Financial Express.

Crucial phase
The IPCC will meet at the Solstrand Hotel the 25-29 of June to finalize the second draft of the report. This is the most crucial phase of the process because the panel must respond, in writing, to each comment to this second draft following an expert and governmental review. After the first draft was subjected to an expert review, the panel received 22.000 comments to the report. Thus it is a very detailed work that shall be carried out during the meeting. In addition, the "Summary for Policymakers" will also be prepared in Bergen, a key chapter which will be read by governments worldwide, as well as a "Technical Summary" which is a popular version of the report.
The final publication of the IPCC report will occur in February 2007.

For more information contact:
Eystein Jansen, director of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Telf: (+47) 906 18858, E-mail: eystein.jansen@geo.uib.no