Jayant Sathaye and Mark Levine were in Bangkok along with dozens of researchers from around the world. Their goal was to draft a 36-page document that summarizes for the world’s policymakers a much longer IPCC report, entitled Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change, which is slated to be issued this summer.

Drafting IPCC report summaries is an exhausting process, made all the more demanding by last-minute requests such as the Belgian delegations last minute request to include a section in the document that outlines how changes in lifestyle, such as car usage and consumer choices, can mitigate climate change — and they asked Levine to write the section. . With 48 hours to go, Levine met with the Belgian delegates over lunch and began drafting the section. Sathaye took over later that evening and worked on it until 2 a.m. The next day, one day before the summary was to be released, Levine and Sathaye finalized the section and submitted it to the delegates.

“It was hard work, but that section wouldn’t be in the summary if we hadn’t been there,” says Levine.

Levine and Sathaye aren’t the only Berkeley Lab scientists who put in long hours in advance of the latest IPCC report, a summary of which was issued on May 4 amid worldwide headlines. In fact, they’re among four Berkeley Lab scientists who are listed as authors: Levine is the coordinating lead author of the report’s residential/commercial chapter, Sathaye is the coordinating lead author of the sustainable development and mitigation chapter, and EETD’s Lynn Price and Ernst Worrell are lead authors of the industry chapter.

In addition, EETD research associate Stephane de la Rue du Can and EETD guest researcher Aleksandra Novikova provided key analytical support. And former International Energy Studies Group scientist, Willy Makundi, now working in Tanzania, is a lead author of a chapter that explores global warming mitigation strategies in a long-term context.

It’s no coincidence that IESG is well represented among the report’s hundreds of authors. The document sketches out a game plan for derailing climate change that relies heavily on utilizing energy efficiency technologies and policies, a field the EETD has been pioneering since the early 1970s. For example, the report targets buildings as having the potential to yield big dividends in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“We’ve been the leader in building energy efficiency R&D and analysis in the U.S., if not the world, so we’ve been tapped for IPCC reports when they include building energy efficiency,” says Levine, who has helped author such reports for the past 15 years.

The IPCC was established under the auspices of the United Nations to study climate change, its potential impacts, and options for mitigation. The panel issues a series of reports about every six years that provides an up-to-date assessment of the current state of knowledge on climate change.

Earlier this year, as part of its fourth assessment entitled Climate Change 2007, the IPCC issued two reports that paint a grim picture of the future. The first report, released in February, determined that global temperatures would likely rise by 1.8°C to 4.0°C, and possibly by 6.4°C under the worst-case scenario, over the next century. A second report issued in April linked global warming with the extinction of up to 30 percent of the planet’s animal and plant life.

The third and most recent May 4 report, however, offers an upbeat note. It concludes that the global community can prevent the devastating impacts of climate change, provided it acts soon. Importantly, this is achievable through currently available strategies such as utilizing alternative energy sources and energy efficiency technologies, reducing deforestation, and implementing sound policies and economic incentives.

“There isn’t a silver bullet,” says Lynn Price. “There are hundreds of technologies available now, with others in the process of commercialization or in the R&D phase. We need to pursue a portfolio of options.”

Lynn Price, along with Ernst Worrell, analyzed scientific literature published since the last assessment report was issued in 2001. They sought to determine what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in energy-intensive industries such as steel, aluminum, cement, chemical, and paper manufacturing, as well as petroleum refining.

Stabilizing climate change will also require policies that promote sustainable development, according to Jayant Sathaye. As an example, he points to the need to reduce deforestation, which contributes to about 15 percent of the planet’s total emissions of carbon dioxide.

“But stopping deforestation is not easy because it supports local economies and timber companies in developing nations,” says Sathaye, whose involvement in drafting IPCC reports dates back to 1990. “There needs to be mechanisms and policies that encourage nations to slow deforestation.”

Ultimately, the report concludes that all sectors — energy supply, transportation, buildings, industry, agriculture, waste management, and forestry — will have to make contributions.

“They’re all significant, and we will need them all in order to stabilize the climate,” says Levine, who adds that mitigating climate change won’t be easy, but it is possible. “This is extremely difficult. We’re talking about changing a whole way of economic life and spending a lot of money doing it. But I left the meeting more optimistic than when I arrived. This report gives the sense that it’s not impossible.”