Established in 1988 as part of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and in conjunction with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) mission is to provide the world’s governments with clear scientific assessments of the state of the global climate; the impacts of any human-induced change, both social and economic; and potential response strategies. With currently 194 member countries, it has become the leading international body in this role.

On December 10, 2007 the IPCC and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. They were cited “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”.

The IPCC sought guidance from Climate Central and Reef Light Interactive on the creation of a microsite for the publication of a Special Report on Extreme Weather and Climate Change (the Report) by the organization’s Working Group II. The overall purpose of the site design is to differ visually in a unique way from the online presentation of Special Reports authored by other Working Groups. To enable this, the following broad goals for the site were agreed:

1. Drive site users to the Report’s key findings.
2. Give users the opportunity to download or embed Report content
3. Promote the following messages: the IPCC process is truly global in nature and IPCC authors are located worldwide and come from different backgrounds