Around 350 scientists from around the world are expected in the lakeside town of Bled for the 4th session of lead authors of the second working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Running from Monday through Friday, the meeting is hosted by the Slovenian Foreign Ministry and will also feature the IPCC Chairman, Indian scientist Rajendra K. Pachauri.
The opening event in the morning will be addressed by Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec, Bled Mayor Janez Fajfar and climate expert Lučka Kajfež Bogataj.
The IPCC is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change, its causes and consequences as well as possible ways to cope with them.
The panel's main task is to draw up reports assessing climate change, which it releases every five to seven years.
Released in 1990, the first report led to the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The most recent report of 2007 earned the IPCC the Nobel Peace Prize.
The panel is currently working on its fifth report, which is scheduled to come out in 2014. It is being drawn up by three working groups, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change (Group I); climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability (Group II); and mitigation of climate change (Group III).
The Foreign Ministry sees the meeting of Working Group II as an opportunity to present the importance of scientific findings in coping with climate change, as well as an opportunity for Slovenia to enrich its scientific and social space with discussions and meetings with the world's leading climate scientists.
Source: The Slovenia Times
