5 March 2009: A workshop on New Science Directions and Activities Relevant to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) took place from 3-6 March 2009, in Honolulu, Hawaii, US. The workshop was jointly organized by the IPCC, World Climate Research Programme and International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and attended by over 150 leading scientists.

The workshop’s goal was to identify the latest developments in climate change science and discuss their implications for our understanding of the Earth System and its response to ongoing accelerated emissions of greenhouse gases and pollution particulates (aerosols), and deforestation.
At the workshop, participants noted that advanced global climate models will be available for the next IPCC report to address regional climate change and extreme events in greater detail. Among the issues discussed were interactions between the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in the climate system and new feedback processes involving the atmosphere, oceans, land and ice. The scientists’ findings will be made available for the planning of AR5, which is due in 2013. [Workshop Press Release]