Editorial

We present, in this issue of Tiempo, the third and final part of our selected excerpts from the IPCC’s 2001 Third Assessment Report. This detailed extract is from the Policymakers Summary of Working Group III’s review of the scientific, technical, environmental, economic and social aspects of the mitigation of climate change.

Manuel Winograd describes a set of mapping techniques for risk and vulnerability assessment employed in a research project undertaken in Honduras. The work was concerned with the impact of natural disasters and lessons that can be drawn regarding reducing the effects of longer-term climate change.

Siri Eriksen, Ane Schjolden and Julie Silva discuss the findings of research on climate vulnerability undertaken in Africa. They explore the interaction between climate impacts and economic trends and show how these linkages create vulnerabilities at the local level.

The United States has announced its unilateral alternative to the Kyoto Protocol to the climate treaty. We describe the main elements of the Bush administration’s programme and present international comment on these plans.

The warming and cooling of the tropical Pacific brings climate disruption to many part of the tropics and subtropics. We report on evidence that a new El Niño event may be developing during the early months of 2002 and describe the outcome of a capacity-strengthening workshop on El Niño forecasting held recently in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Finally, we present in this issue the global temperature average for 2001, the second warmest year on record.

The next issue of Tiempo will be a double issue, out in September 2002, as a lead-up to the UNFCCC Eighth Conference of the Parties in late October.