AOSIS members wishes to express their sincere appreciation to the excellent work
done to date by the IPCC and its Bureau. It noted with appreciation the information
provided by the Chairman and the Chairman-elect at the present sessions of the Subsidiary
Bodies to the UNFCCC, particularly regarding the Third Assessment Report (TAR).
AOSIS gives its full support to the on-going and valuable work of the IPCC and re-iterates
the need for the IPCC to continue to maintain its independent and non-political role in
fulfilling its mandate.
On the financial contributions to the work of the IPCC, AOSIS wishes to thank
parties that contributes to the IPCC Trust Fund which allowed experts from developing
countries, including AOSIS experts, to participate in the work of the IPCC. AOSIS urges
these Parties to continue to provide adequate funding to the Trust Fund to ensure the
further involvement of experts from non-Annex Parties in the future work of the IPCC.
AOSIS requests that the IPCC, in carrying out its work, to cooperate closely with
other international organizations such as the World Meteorological Program (WMO)
involved in international research programs to advance our understanding of the climate
system and its response to climate change. AOSIS gives its full support to the Climate
Agenda program.
Regarding the TAR, AOSIS noted with satisfaction the regional emphasis on the
report and the efforts by the IPCC to fully involved experts from non-Annex I country
parties. AOSIS requests the IPCC to address the following issues in the TAR.
The IPCC to further narrow down the remaining uncertainties in the IPCC
projections and scenarios.
The ranges used by the IPCC in past reports and papers are based on collective
judgment of IPCC authors and reviewers of each chapters and papers. AOSIS sees the
need for the IPCC to develop and draw formal methodologies to achieve more consistency
in setting criteria for high and low range limits.
On computer modeling, AOSIS requests the IPCC to put more efforts to narrow
down grid box scales to smaller scales in order for these models to be meaningful and
applicable to AOSIS members.
Provision of accurate information and analysis on the effectiveness and
implications of proposed PAMs to mitigate and adapt to climate change and sea level rise, in particular
the socio-economic implications including losses incurred by implementing PAMs in
Annex I parties.
Put more efforts on assessment of regional impacts and responses to climate
change and sea level rise particularly adaptation options. Of particular importance to AOSIS is
the need to further improve our understanding of the role of the oceans in determining the
response time of the climate system. In this regard, efforts gear towards further
understanding regional weather patterns which have major influence on AOSIS members
(e.g. El Nino Southern Oscillation, Tropical cyclones etc.) should be of high priority for
the work of the IPCC.
Structure of TAR could be improved. AOSIS expresses concerns on the structure
of past papers and reports. It took a great deal of effort to synthesize these into manageable sections.