Summary for policy makers: Emissions scenarios, a special report of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established jointly by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess periodically the science, impacts and socioeconomics of climate change and of adaptation and mitigation options. The IPCC provides, on request, scientific and technical advice to the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its bodies. In response to a 1994 evaluation of the earlier IPCC IS92 emissions scenarios, the 1996 Plenary of the IPCC requested this Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) (see Appendix I for the Terms of Reference). This report was accepted by the Working Group III (WGIII) plenary session in March 2000. The long-term nature and uncertainty of climate change and its driving forces require scenarios that extend to the end of the 21st century. This Report describes the new scenarios and how they were developed.