IPCC Special Report on
Carbon Dioxide Storage and Capture
U.S. Government Review
Invitation to Comment

See also Federal Register Notice, 25 January 2005.

[comment period closed on 23 Feb 2005]

The Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has informed the U.S. Department of State that the second-order draft of the “Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Storage and Capture ” (SRCCS) is available for expert and Government review. IPCC Working Group III is overseeing preparation of this Special Report, which is being written by a team of over 100 authors under IPCC rules and procedures.

On behalf of the U.S. Department of State, the Climate Change Science Program Office (CCSPO) is coordinating the solicitation of comments by U.S. experts and stakeholders to inform development of an integrated set of U.S. Government comments on the report. To be considered in development of the U.S. position, comments must be received at CCSPO by close of business on 23 February 2005.  [comment period closed on 23 Feb 2005]  Comments must be sent to the following email address using a provided template:  srccs-USGreview@climatescience.gov.

Because the report is still in draft, distribution of the materials for review will be through a password-protected Web site.  If you are interested in reviewing the report, send an email message to ipcc-usgrev@climatescience.gov to obtain the username and password required to access the report.  Then follow this link to download the report and to obtain explicit instructions regarding comments formatting.

BACKGROUND

Delegates at the Seventh Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) expressed interest in carbon capture and storage by inviting the IPCC to prepare a Technical Paper on geological carbon storage technologies. The IPCC noted that a Technical Paper would be repetitious with the very limited material covered in the IPCC Third Assessment Report. At its 19th session (April 2002), the Panel decided to hold a workshop to consider the issues associated with geological and oceanic carbon separation, capture, and storage, with participant input and the proceedings serving to advise the Panel whether to develop a Special Report or to incorporate the issue in the Fourth Assessment Report.

At its 20th session (February 2003), the Panel decided to prepare a Special Report and approved the outline. This report has already undergone an Expert Review, and participants have been included in the IPCC solicitation for comments as part of the Government Review. Expert and Government Review comments will be considered during the Fourth Lead Authors Meeting (25-29 April 2005, Oviedo, Spain), and a revised Summary for Policymakers (SPM) sent to Governments for comment in mid-August 2005. An IPCC plenary to approve the SPM and accept the underlying report is planned for late September 2005. Refer to the following links/documents for more detailed information:

• Workshop Proceedings [6.9MB] [PDF]
• SRCCS Scoping Paper [52 kB] [PDF]
• SRCCS Expert Reviewers [72kB] [PDF]
• IPCC Special Reports Overview
• IPCC Rules and Procedures

LOGISTICS

After obtaining the username and password via ipcc-usgrev@climatescience.gov, follow this link to access the report and review instructions. To facilitate the U.S. compilation, please use the comment template [MS Word file] (which can be found in the password-protected portion of the site) to submit comments. Forward your comments to srccs-USGreview@climatescience.gov  by COB 23 February 2005 [comment period closed on 23 Feb 2005], referencing the Special Report and your surname in the subject line (e.g., *SRCCS: Smith*). You must send your comments to this address, not directly to the IPCC, for them to be considered in the process of developing the U.S. Government submission.

This document is still in draft, and has not been accepted or approved by the Panel and is provided for the sole purpose of review.  DO NOT CITE OR QUOTE THE DOCUMENT.

See also Federal Register Notice, 25 January 2005.

For questions regarding the review process, contact Dave Dokken at ddokken@usgcrp.gov or 202-419-3473 (direct voice).