The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is, in Austria, mirrored by the Austrian Panel on Climate Change (APCC). The APCC gathers renowned experts from the Austrian climate research community who compile the state of research on climate change prevention and adaptation. They do so by regularly publishing assessment reports on climate change as a whole and by special reports devoted to thematically defined issues.

Currently, a special report is in the making on structural conditions that are required to enable a climate-friendly living (SR 22 – in German only). Structures condition the actions of actors. They can facilitate or even hinder life that is friendly to the climate. They are material (infrastructure) or immaterial (norms). Mostly, they are long-lasting.

This report shall provide the public with consolidated knowledge as a well-founded basis for decision-making. It shall assess the robustness of scientific knowledge while highlighting the unknowns and future research needs and is thus policy-relevant, but not prescriptive. And it is value-transparent.

The procedure of compiling this report follows the procedures the IPCC is applying. The drafts undergo several steps of iterative engaging of reviewers, stakeholders and the co-chairs of the project. The review management has reached the last step. After the reviews of the second order draft, the authors have produced the final draft that is now subject to review-editing, i.e., supervising the detailed confluence of reviews and responses.

This project is in concert with our agenda. About 80 persons collaborate here in different roles. We are happy to support this important work. Livia Regen is author, Wolfgang Hofkirchner is one of several review-editors.