cc: moors@Alterra.wag-ur.nl, hutjes@Alterra.wag-ur.nl, "Guy Brasseur (E-mail)" , "Peter Lemke (E-mail)" , "Pier. Vellinga (E-mail)" , gijsen@Alterra.wag-ur.nl, zande@Alterra.wag-ur.nl, "Carlos NobreC (E-mail)" , "'Mike Hulme' (E-mail)" , "'Schellnhuber (E-mail)" , "Anver Ghazi (E-mail)" , "Han (E-mail)" , "Peter H. Gleick (E-mail)" , "Joseph Alcamo (E-mail)" , "Carlo. Jaeger (E-mail)" , "Nigel Arnell (E-mail)" , "Roberto Lenton (E-mail)" , "David Carson (E-mail)" , "Will Steffen [will@igbp.kva.se] (E-mail)" , "Soroosh Sorooshian (E-mail)" , "John Marks (E-mail)" , "Panagiotis Balabanis (E-mail)" , "Wolfgang Grabs (E-mail)" , eijsackers@altera.wag-ur.nl date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 08:32:54 +0200 from: "Kabat, dr. P." subject: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) : Water & to: "William J. Cosgrove (E-mail)" , "Henk van Schaik (E-mail)" , "Rco (E-mail)" , "HELLMUTH MOLLY ELIZABETH (E-mail)" , veraart@Alterra.wag-ur.nl, "Bert Diphoorn (E-mail)" , "Holger Hoff (E-mail)" Dear Bill, Bert, dear colleagues: 1. after having attended the 19th Session of the IPCC - Panel meeting last week in Geneva, it is my great pleasure to announce that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has decided at its 19th session, held in Geneve on April 17-20, 2002, to adopt a proposal launched jointly by the Dialogue on Water & Climate and WMO/WCP-Water, to start preparation for a Special IPCC Report on Climate & Water. By decision of the Panel, a scoping paper for Special Report will be prepared by Working Groups I and II of the IPCC, in close collaboration with the International Secretariat of the Dialogue on Water and Climate, and with WMO/WCP-Water. Activities on IPCC Special Report on Water and Climate could follow after the 3dr World Water Forum (March 2003), and where possible, build further from a Synthesis Report on Water&Climate, which is currently under preparation by the Dialogue on Water and Climate as input to the 3rd World Water Forum. The IPCC Special Report on Climate and Water would have to be completed by 2005, and it would become one of leading documents for the 4th World Water Forum in 2006. Attached, a proposal as submitted to IPCC Panel meeting by the Dialogue on Water and Climate, jointly with WMO/WCP-Water, and a short public announcement: <> <> The IPCC Panel consists of 192 UN countries; governmental delegations of 146 countries attended Geneva meeting last week. Our proposal for a Special Report on Climate and Water met a wide support of most of the delegations present. Countries which spoke out openly in favour included USA (!!), Australia, Austria, Japan, Netherlands, Canada, Russia, Tunisia, Marocco, Kenya, China, Peru, Saudi Arabia (!!); among many others. We believe this an important milestone in a process of scientific and political recognition of the "cross cutting issue water" in the international arena of global environmental change. This success is even more remarkable if placed in context of potential implications for a decisionmaking process and actionplans re. adaptation and coping strategies with climate variability and change - see e.g. the spin-off of a special report on Land Use and Carbon Sinks. And last, but not least- this will become one of the first concrete "off-springs" of the Dialogue on Water and Climate, a guaranteed continuity of Dialogue process beyond the 2003 - 3rd World Water Forum. Contacts for further information are: Robert Watson, past-Chair, IPCCC (rwatson@worldbank.org) Susan Solomon, Co-Chair, IPCC Working Group I (solomon@al.noaa.gov) Martin Parry, Co-Chair, IPCC Working Group II (parry@aol.com) Wolfgang Grabs, WMO/WCP-Water ( Grabs_W@gateway.wmo.ch) Pavel Kabat, Science Director Dialogue on Water and Climate ( kabat@alterra.wag-ur.nl) The above group has been requested by the IPCC Panel to initiate a "Scoping Paper". I hope you all would be willing to contribute to this process! 2. Short Paper in Science Magazine on Water&cClimate: as several of you remember, we have initiated writing of this short paper after the Bonn Water Conference (12/2001), following launching of the Dialogue on Water and Climate programme. A proposal is now to link this paper to a new momentum- which is the IPCC decision, and to the upcoming Johannesburg conference , where water in relation to climate will have important stake. Depending on initial success/failure story of a short paper, we may consider drafting more extended review article of a subject for Science or Nature, and submit it so it can be accepted/published before Johannesburg. Interim results of the Dialogue on Water and Climate (eg "white paper", IWA/DWC paper, starting regional projects/dialogues), together with many exciting contributions your respective organisations/groups can provide, should make drafting of such a review feasible. I will be sending separate communication about it, but would be interested in your initial response 3. Finally - as you probably know, the IPCC Panel has been electing its new Chair and the Bureau at its meeting last week. There were many issues at stake and entangled in this elections, included the US formal present attitude towards Climate Convention and Kyoto Protocol, as well as a "wish" for much stronger manifestation of a "coalition" of developing countries (lead by Saudi Arabia......!) in IPCC process. It this not appropriate and formally correct to put any qualifiers on this lengthy and terribly formal/bureaucratic process and its outcome, though you may be reading in-between the lines, so just the results: There were 3 candidates for a Chair 1) Bob Watson, current IPCC chair; 2) R Pachauri from India, 3) a Brazilian candidate 132 countries had presented valid voting slips, results: 7 votes to Brazil, 49 for Watson and 76 for Pachauri- new Chair for coming 5-6 years is Pachauri. It was not clear at this stage what (if any) formal IPCC position could be designated to Bob Watson.. In any case, by decision of the Panel, the next (4th) IPCC overall assessment report (FAR) is now due in 2007 best regards, Pavel Kabat > P.Kabat@Alterra.wag-ur.nl > Chair, Climate Change & Biosphere Centre, Wageningen University and > Research Centre > Scientific Director, International Secretariat Dialogue Water and Climate > (IDWC) > Voice: +31 317 474314 / 474299 (office); +31 65 3489378 (cellular); Fax: > +31 317 419000 Internet: www.wau.nl/ccb; www.alterra.wageningen-ur.nl, > www.cptec.inpe.br/lba/ , www.pik-potsdam.de/~bahc, www.gewex.com > Visiting address/FEDDEX: ALTERRA Green World Research, Droevendaalsesteeg > 3, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands > > Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\DWC_Proposal_version1.doc" Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\Short announcement_DWC_WMO_IPCC.doc"