IPCC to report on extreme events, disasters

Environment News Service: Increasing human ability to cope with most extreme effects of global warming such as disasters due to floods, droughts, storms and heat waves will be the focus of a special report by the United Nations' intergovernmental body that assesses scientific information about climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, will prepare the report on managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation, the scientific group decided today at the conclusion of its meeting in Antalya. The report will integrate the findings of the climate change scientific community and the disaster risk management community. Key main topics to be assessed will be the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme events; vulnerability; and disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

"In its Fourth Assessment Report, the IPCC had found that climate change was being manifested in the nature of changed frequency, intensity and length of many extreme events, such as floods, droughts, storms and extreme temperatures," said Rajendra Pachauri of India, who chairs the IPCC.

"This special report will generate knowledge on these extreme events and their characteristics, whereby the global community can prepare more effectively for adapting to future risks posed by the hazards that these occurrences will present," said Dr. Pachauri.

"Communities at the local level and national governments can deal with such extreme events by adopting a range of disaster risk reduction strategies, and prevent some of the worst humanitarian consequences that they are projected to give rise to," he said….

Storm surge during 1975's Hurricane Eloise, NOAA