About the NIPCC

The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) is an international panel of nongovernment scientists and scholars who have come together to present a comprehensive, authoritative, and realistic assessment of the science and economics of global warming. Because it is not a government agency, and because its members are not predisposed to believe climate change is caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, NIPCC is able to offer an independent “second opinion” of the evidence reviewed – or not reviewed – by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the issue of global warming.

The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, or NIPCC, as its name suggests, is an international panel of scientists and scholars who came together to understand the causes and consequences of climate change. NIPCC has no formal attachment to or sponsorship from any government or governmental agency. It is wholly independent of political pressures and influences and therefore is not predisposed to produce politically motivated conclusions or policy recommendations.

NIPCC seeks to objectively analyze and interpret data and facts without conforming to any specific agenda. This organizational structure and purpose stand in contrast to those of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is government-sponsored, politically motivated, and predisposed to believing that climate change is a problem in need of a U.N. solution.

NIPCC traces its beginnings to an informal meeting held in Milan, Italy in 2003 organized by Dr. S. Fred Singer and the Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP). The purpose was to produce an independent evaluation of the available scientific evidence on the subject of carbon dioxide-induced global warming in anticipation of the release of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). NIPCC scientists concluded the IPCC was biased with respect to making future projections of climate change, discerning a significant human-induced influence on current and past climatic trends, and evaluating the impacts of potential carbon dioxide-induced environmental changes on Earth’s biosphere.

To highlight such deficiencies in the IPCC’s AR4, in 2008 SEPP partnered with The Heartland Institute to produce Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate, a summary of research for policymakers that has been widely distributed and translated into six languages. In 2009, the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change joined the original two sponsors to help produce Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), the first comprehensive alternative to the alarmist reports of the IPCC.

In 2010, a Web site (www.nipccreport.org) was created to highlight scientific studies NIPCC scientists believed would likely be downplayed or ignored by the IPCC during preparation of its next assessment report. In 2011, the three sponsoring organizations produced Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2011 Interim Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), a review and analysis of new research released since the 2009 report or overlooked by the authors of that report.

In 2013, the Information Center for Global Change Studies, a division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, translated and published an abridged edition of the 2009 and 2011 NIPCC reports in a single volume. On June 15, the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized a NIPCC Workshop in Beijing to allow the NIPCC principal authors to present summaries of their conclusions.

In September 2013, NIPCC released Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science, the first of three volumes expanding and bringing up-to-date the original 2009 report as well as offering a counter-point to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report. This website was created to feature the new report and news about its release.

In 2014, the second volume of Climate Change Reconsidered II, subtitled Biological Impacts, was published. It offered more than 1,000 pages of reviews of scientific research finding the impact of man-made global warming is benign and even beneficial to mankind and the natural world.

In November, 2015, the three lead NIPCC authors – Craig Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer – wrote a small book titled Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Scientific Consensus revealing how no survey or study shows a “consensus” on the most important scientific issues in the climate change debate, and how most scientists do not support the alarmist claims of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

From March through June 2017, The Heartland Institute mailed some 300,000 copies of the second edition of this book to K-12 and college science teachers across America. Read the cover letter of that mailing here.

In October, 2018, NIPCC released the Summary for Policy Makers of the latest volume in the series, Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels. The full volume was released on December 4, 2018 in Katowice, Poland during the United Nation’s climate conference, COP-24, at an event sponsored by The Heartland Institute. Printed copies of the book are available from the Heartland Store and from Amazon.com.

In April 2008, Singer’s Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) and The Heartland Institute partnered to produce Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate, subtitled “Summary for Policymakers of the Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change.” The 48-page report listed 24 contributors from 14 countries and included a foreword by Dr. Frederick Seitz, one of the world’s most renowned scientists. (Dr. Seitz passed away on March 2, 2008.) It was released at Heartland’s First International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-1) on March 2-4, 2008.

In 2008, Dr. Singer conducted an extensive international tour to promote the new report. He spoke at events in the Netherlands (June 3-4), Brussels-EU (June 5), Germany (June 6-12), Vienna, Milan, Paris (June 19-20), and London (June 22-25). Local free-market think tanks arranged those events. Heartland distributed approximately 100,000 copies of Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate in 2008, and the booklet has been translated into French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

NIPCC’s best work lay ahead. In the tradition of the IPCC, NIPCC had published its Summary for Policymakers in advance of completing the underlying report. The first full report, produced with a new partner, the Center for the Study of Global Warming and Global Change, was released in 2009. It was titled Climate Change Reconsidered: The Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC).

In 2011, NIPCC produced its third report, Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2011 Interim Report. The volume summarized new research produced after the deadline for inclusion in the 2009 report as well as some research that had been overlooked when the first volume was produced. Both volumes have won widespread praise and been compared favorably to the reports of the vastly larger IPCC.*

In September 2013, NIPCC released Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science, the first of three volumes expanding and bringing up-to-date the original 2009 report as well as offering a counter-point to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report. Also in 2013, four NIPCC scientists produced a Scientific Critique of IPCC’s 2013 ‘Summary for Policymakers’.

In 2014, the second volume of Climate Change Reconsidered II, subtitled Biological Impacts, was published. It offered more than 1,000 pages of reviews of scientific research finding the impact of man-made global warming is benign and even beneficial to mankind and the natural world. Also in 2014, a team of climate scientists led by Robert M. Carter, a NIPCC lead author, produced a Commentary and Analysis on the Whitehead & Associates 2014 NSW Sea-Level Report, finding the Whitehead report does not provide reliable guidance to the complicated issues of measuring, forecasting, and responding to sea-level rise.

In November, 2015, NIPCC released Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Scientific Consensus. The three lead NIPCC authors – Craig Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer – reveal how no survey or study shows a “consensus” on the most important scientific issues in the climate change debate, and how most scientists do not support the alarmist claims of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This short book is a preliminary version of Chapter 2 of the forthcoming and final volume in the Climate Change Reconsidered II series, to be subtitled Benefits and Costs of Fossil Fuels.

In late 2018 and early 2019, The Heartland Institute published Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels, the final volume of the Climate Change Reconsidered II series.


Footnote:

* See Reviews of CCR-I and CCR-Interim Report. Also, Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, “Nature on Heartland,” Climate Etc. [Blog], July 27, 2011.

NIPCC is a project of three independent nonprofit organizations: Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (CO2 Science), and The Heartland Institute. Contributions to all three organizations help support the project. (For more about these organizations, see the “Contacts” section at the NIPCC home page).

Dr. S. Fred Singer, the founder of NIPCC, acts as chairman and ambassador of the group. One of the world’s most distinguished atmospheric scientists, he travels the world meeting with scientists, discussing NIPCC’s research, and recruiting new members to the group.

Dr. Craig D. Idso, founder and chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, leads the research and writing effort for NIPCC publications. He hosts the CO2Science.org website featuring reviews of new research that will be edited for inclusion in the next edition of Climate Change Reconsidered, and works with an international team of lead authors, editors, contributors, and reviewers.

Joseph L. Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, leads the publication and promotional efforts of NIPCC. He and Heartland’s staff edit and produce NIPCC books, host the events at which the reports are released, and market the project’s efforts.

NIPCC procedures are documented in this document.