Geneva, 2 February 2010 – The IPCC is a unique partnership between the scientific community and the world’s governments. Its goal is to provide policy- relevant but not policy-prescriptive information on key aspects of climate change, including the physical science basis, impacts of and vulnerability to climate change in human and natural systems, options for adapting to the climate changes that cannot be avoided, and options for mitigation to avoid climate change. The IPCC relies on a combination of broad participation, rigorous oversight, and transparent, thorough adherence to carefully designed procedures to produce assessment reports that have become, over the last 20 years, the international gold standard in the scientific assessment of climate change. Any such human endeavour can never be completely errorfree, but IPCC assessments are as close to this goal as the international community of scientists and governments can accomplish. The members of the IPCC (who are the world’s national governments), its elected leadership, and the thousands of scientists who contribute to each report are continually working to improve all aspects of future reports.