How was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change formed?

The rising concern of climate change has led to the formation of many environment agencies all over the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is one among them. Located in Geneva, it is an organisation that evaluates climate change and was founded in 1988 by the collaborative effort of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The IPCC’s mission is to deliver scientific data to all levels of governments and help them utilise these data for creating climate-related policies. It has 195 member countries as of now, including India. Let’s go through the chain of events that led to the formation of IPCC. 

Rising CO₂ emissions and climate change become a concern 
It was during the 19^th century that scientists woke up to the possibility that rising carbon dioxide emissions could be a man-made menace. However, it took them another century to get invested in the topic to the extent it was needed. One major initiative in generating knowledge in this regard was the International Geophysical Year (IGY) organized by the international Council for Science ICSU in 1957. 

In the next two decades till 1977, quite a few initiatives were taken in the arena of climate research through various initiatives like the Global Atmospheric Research Programme (GARP) among others. During this period geologists and scientists started analysing the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its impact on climate change that was being observed all over the globe. What they were keen to find out was whether or not this variation was man-made. All these events and initiatives led to the first Word Climate Conference in 1979 by the WMO and UNEP organized a first Word Climate Conference. However, it did not go beyond the academic circles to create mass awareness about the subject.  

The Villach meetings of the 80s 
Shortly after the first World Climate Conference, top climate scientists held a meeting in Villach in October 1980. This meeting brought together physicists, chemists, meteorologists, geographers and other specialists in a small-scale, multinational assembly of leading experts researching climate change problems. Shortly after the meeting, the UNEP submitted their report on the ‘assessment of the role of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases in climate variations and associated impacts’. In 1985, a second Villach conference, again organised by ICSU, UNEP and WMO, was conducted to discuss the study’s results. It became clear that the combined effect of all greenhouse gases could mean doubling atmospheric CO₂ concentrations on the horizon before the middle of the 21st century. With the scientific community taking note of atmospheric alterations, climate change was gradually becoming a much more urgent issue than ever before and the second Villach meeting was a significant turning point in the study of environment. 

Birth of IPCC  
After the second Villach meeting, Dr. Moustafa Tolba, the head of UNEP, realised that international efforts were essential to address the emerging climate change issues. So, he wrote to the then US Secretary of State George Schultz. This, along with the observations gathered from the Villach meetings spurred three international environment agencies to join hands: ICSU, UNEP and WMO. Their objective was to bring the issue of climate change on the table of policymakers from the pages of scientific journals and the confines of conference rooms. They made efforts to awaken governments across the globe towards this burning environment issue which led to the formation of IPCC in 1988.