This summary is relied upon
by government policymakers.
It is not the detailed scientific
works published months later.
IPCC ‘moral’ philosopher
John Broome described
the writing of the Summary
for Policymakers ( SPM )
in this way:
“The whole idea of the Approval Session is extraordinary.
Every single sentence of the SPM has to be either approved or rejected by delegates from governments.
At the Plenary meeting, the draft is projected on a screen sentence by sentence.
As each sentence comes up, the chairman asks delegates for comments on it and proposed amendments.
Delegates propose amendments and the authors then consider whether they can be supported by the underlying main report.
The rule is that a sentence is approved only if it is supported by the main report, and only if there is a consensus on approving it among the delegates.
When the haggling on a sentence is concluded and a consensus obtained, the chairman brings down the gavel, the approved sentence is highlighted on the screen in green, and discussion moves to the next sentence.
Very gradually, green highlighting spreads through the report.
Five days – Monday to Friday – were set aside for approving the whole 30 pages by this means.”
Broome also wrote:
“During the three years I have worked for the IPCC, I have had many experiences that are not typical in the life of a philosopher.
There is the travel, for one thing.
To fight climate change, the IPCC finds it necessary to hold meetings in remote corners of the world. Its own resources are small, so it goes wherever a government offers to fund a meeting.
I have been to IPCC meetings in Lima, Changwon in South Korea, Wellington and Addis Ababa.
In Europe, the IPCC has taken me to Vigo, Geneva, Oslo, Utrecht, Berlin and Potsdam.
Kuala Lumpur and Copenhagen are still to come.
I hope the other authors offset the emissions caused by their travel to these meetings; I am pleased to say that the British government pays to offset mine.
All this travelling is not much fun; IPCC work is relentless, and I have had little time to enjoy the places I have been to.”