In addition to Assessment Reports, the IPCC publishes Special Reports on specific topics. The preparation and approval process for all IPCC Special Reports follows the same procedures as for IPCC Assessment Reports.
 
The IPCC has produced Special Reports on various topics such as aviation; regional impacts of climate change; technology transfer; emissions scenarios; land use, land-use change and forestry; carbon dioxide capture and storage; and the relationship between safeguarding the ozone layer and the global climate system. For more information on these see the Special Reports section of the Publications page.

 
Two IPCC Special Reports in 2011

In 2011, two IPCC Special Reports were finalized; the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) and the Special Report on Managing Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX). Both Special Reports were requested by governments.
 

Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN)
 

The Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) was approved and accepted at the 11th Session of Working Group III that took place on 5-8 May 2011 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

This report assesses existing literature on the future potential of renewable energy for the mitigation of climate change. It covers the six most important renewable energy technologies, as well as their integration into present and future energy systems. It also takes into consideration the environmental and social consequences associated with these technologies, the cost, and strategies to overcome technical as well as non-technical obstacles to their application and diffusion.

More than 130 authors and 100 contributing authors from all over the world contributed to the preparation of SRREN on a voluntary basis.

• Summary for Policymakers (SPM) released on 9 May 2011
• Press Release
• Generic Presentation
• Videos
• Information Note
• Full Report

Additional information on the report can be found at the Working Group III website for SRREN.
 

Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX)
 

The Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) was approved and accepted at the first Joint Session of IPCC Working Groups I and II that met on 14-17 November 2011 in Kampala, Uganda. 
 
The report assesses the effect that climate change has on the threat of natural disasters and how nations can better manage an expected change in the frequency of occurrence and intensity of severe weather patterns. It aims to be a resource for decision-makers to prepare more effectively for managing the risks of these events. A potentially important area for consideration is also the detection of trends in extreme events and the attribution of these trends to human influence.
 
More than 80 authors, 19 review editors, and more than 100 contributing authors from all over the world contributed to the preparation of SREX. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction prepared the original proposal for the report.  

• Summary for Policymakers (SPM) released on 18 November 2011
• Press Release
• Generic Presentation
• Videos
• Fact Sheet
• Full Report
• SREX Press Conference [recording]
  

 

Additional information on the report can be found at the Working Group II website for SREX.

Since 1992, the IPCC has been preparing methodologies and guidelines to assist Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol to prepare national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks. The last major publication was the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.
 
In October 2013, the IPCC accepted two new Methodology Reports prepared by its Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI); the 2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands (Wetlands Supplement) and the 2013 Revised Supplementary Methods and Good Practice Guidance arising from the Kyoto Protocol (KP Supplement).
 
At its 33rd session, the IPCC decided to produce additional guidance – the Wetlands Supplement – to cover inland wetlands such as peatlands, draining and rewetting of organic soils, and coastal wetlands such as mangroves. This was requested by the UNFCCC, and the IPCC hopes that the 2013 supplementary guidance will make an important contribution to future international action on wetlands. More information about the Wetlands Supplement can be found here.
 
At the invitation of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC, and following agreement by the IPCC at its 35th Session, the TFI completed the KP Supplement. This supplement is a review and an update of the good practice guidance on estimating greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) under the Kyoto Protocol. More information about the KP Supplement can be found here
 
The TFI has also produced IPCC Inventory Software. It is available free on CD or can be downloaded here. The TFI also produces other material to assist users of the guidelines, such as the Emissions Factor Database (EFDB).
 
For more information on the TFI please see the website.

The Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impact and Climate Analysis (TGICA) facilitates distribution and application of climate change related data and scenarios. The conduct of TGICA is governed by its mandate.
 
TGICA oversees a Data Distribution Centre (DDC) which provides data sets, scenarios of climate change and other environmental and socio-economic conditions, and other materials (e.g. technical guidelines on the use of scenarios and factsheets offering clarifying explanations/concise guidance on topical issues). The DDC also links to relevant data sets and information held outside the DDC, such as outputs produced from the new community-led process of scenario development to support climate change research.
 
TGICA also contributes to building capacity in the use of data and scenarios for climate-related research in developing and transition-economy regions and countries. It does this through the data and guidance provided via the DDC, by convening expert meetings on an as-needed basis, and by maintaining and updating a global list of networks for outreach.
 
Since the TGICA was established in 1996, a great deal has changed regarding needs and services for data and scenarios. Most significantly, the community of users has evolved from a relatively small group of researchers focusing on global- and regional-scale modelling of the impacts of climate change, to a large and diverse set of actors worldwide, including national, state/provincial, and local entities, business and industry, non-governmental organizations, and community groups, including participants in the UNFCCC Nairobi Work Programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. This more diverse group of users has a far more varied set of data and scenario needs, including data products more appropriate to settings with limited computational, communications, and research capacity. The process for preparation of scenarios has also changed, and has become a more open, interdisciplinary process with a larger number of interactions across the climate modelling, impacts/adaptation/vulnerability, and integrated assessment modelling communities. These changes provide new challenges and opportunities for the TGICA.
 
TGICA Membership was refreshed in the summer of 2010 (see table below) with Timothy Carter (Finland) and Bruce Hewitson (South Africa) appointed in May 2011 to serve as Co-Chairs. There have been six full meetings of the reappointed Task Group: TGICA-16 (National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 4-6 August 2010). TGICA-17 (Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Palo Alto, California, USA, 6-8 February 2012), TGICA-18 (St Petersburg, Russian Federation, 18-20 September 2012), TGICA-19 (Jeju, Republic of Korea, 14-16 May 2013), TGICA-20 (WMO Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, 25-27 February 2014) and TGICA- 21 (Yokohama, Japan, 24-26 November 2014). In addition there have been six Webex meetings of the Task Group between April 2011 and September 2014.
 
Further information about TGICA activities and developments can be found in Progress Reports submitted to Sessions of the IPCC. As of February 2015, seven Progress Reports of the newly constituted Task Group are available for download: IPCC-XLI/Doc. 10 (February 2015), IPCC-XL/Doc. 17 (October 2014), IPCC-XXXIX/Doc.11 (April 2014), IPCC-XXXVII/Doc.12 (October 2013, IPCC-XXXV/Doc. 22 (June 2012), IPCC-XXXIV/Doc.13 (November 2011), and IPCC-XXXIII/Doc. 19 (May 2011). In addition, two presentations about TGICA and its ongoing activities were provided by the TGICA Co-Chairs at the 35th Session (6-9 June 2012, Geneva) and 37th Session (14-18 October 2013, Batumi, Georgia) of the IPCC.
 
Currently, TGICA Members are:
 

Scenarios of potential future anthropogenic climate change, the underlying driving forces, and the response options have been an important component of IPCC work. In the past the IPCC coordinated the process of developing scenarios for its assessments (see AR 1990, SR 1994 and SRES 2000). In 2006 the IPCC decided that rather than directly coordinating and approving scenarios, the process of scenario development should be coordinated by the scientific community. The IPCC would catalyze the timely production of new scenarios for possible use in its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). To this end an expert meeting was held on 19-21 September 2007 in Noorwijkerhout, the Netherlands (Report of the meeting) which considered the plans by the scientific community and agreed representative concentration pathways. The meeting was attended by experts on integrated assessment (IAM), impacts; adaptation and vulnerability research (IAV); and climate modelling (CM). The agreement on a parallel process for scenario development and the schedule for delivering products was important for the decision by the Panel on the schedule of the AR5.
 
The early identification of a set of "Representative Concentration Pathways" (RCPs) facilitates coordination of new integrated socioeconomic, emissions, and climate scenarios. The main rationale for beginning with RCPs is to expedite the development of a broad literature of new and integrated scenarios by allowing the modeling of climate system responses to human activities to proceed in parallel to emissions scenario development.
 
Further information on scenario development and coordination with the scientific community can be found in the Progress Report submitted to the 32nd Session of the Panel, Busan, Republic of Korea, 11 - 14 October 2010 (IPCC-XXXII/Doc. 16). This report discusses the Draft Memorandum of Understanding between the Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium (IAMC) and IPCC Working Groups II and III (IPCC-XXXII/INF.10), and the link between the IPCC and the scientific community on the scenario development process which continues now through the Co-Chairs of the Working Groups.
 
In this regard, a joint IPCC workshop of Working Groups II and III on "Socioeconomic Scenarios for Climate Change Impact and Response Assessments" was held in Berlin, Germary on 1-3 November 2010. For background and supporting material for this workshop, please see here.
 
Finally, the IPCC's Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impact and Climate Analysis (TGICA) also provides via the Data Distribution Centre (DDC) a new set of web pages that provide an overview of the new process under way for developing scenarios to support climate change research. These pages are intended for researchers who may wish to participate in scenario development, who use scenarios in their research, or who wish to learn more about current efforts to improve the coordination of different fields of climate research.
 
A presentation on the new process underway for developing scenarios was provided at the 35th Session of the IPCC in June 2012.