In 2007 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former United States Vice-President Al Gore.

Recently, Martiros Tsarukyan, an employee at the Armenian Ministry of Nature Protection’s Department of Atmosphere Protection who is also a longstanding member of the IGPCC, was awarded with a copy of the Nobel Prize certificate along with a congratulatory letter which reads in part, “…I am happy to send you a copy of the Nobel Peace Prize certificate awarded to the IPCC. The respect embodied in this lofty award belongs to you band our other colleagues who made such a significant contribution to the work of the IPCC during the years since the organization’s founding…”

One can state that due to the efforts of this Armenian expert our republic has also made its small contribution in the awarding of the Nobel Prize. Mr. Tsarukyan was nominated the Armenian expert of the IPCC team back in 1995 and has participated in the organization’s activities ever since. He also is systematizing the work for the national registry of greenhouse gases.

Mr. Tsarukyan, what exactly is the IPCC and its stated mission?

In 2007 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the IPCC and former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, "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.” During the last twenty years our group has periodically analyzed and collated information regarding man-made climate change and Al Gore has edited all this data culminating from years of research into a documentary film entitled, “An Inconvenient Truth”, which has captured public attention the world over.

Man-made causes of climate change and the problem of its potential consequences is an issue that has concerned mankind and international organizations for quite sometime. The vital question to be asked in this regard is what will be the effects of global warming for the planet? Will humankind be able to survive in a new set of conditions it itself has created? This was the concern at the end of the 20th century, a period which witnessed a rapid rise in industrial development that forced world public opinion to take specific action. In 1988 the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the IPCC whose stated mission, “is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.”

In 1990 the IPCC published its first assessment report of the results of its work which proved the existence of global climate change and its human-induced nature. This report served as the basis of  The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international environmental  treaty, signed by a majority of world governments, produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The treaty is aimed at stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. It was at this historic meeting that an Armenian delegation, headed by the Republic’s First President, participated for the first time.

The Rio Summit opened a new page for all humankind since the signatory nations assumed a set of serious responsibilities as a result. Understandably, highly-developed industrial nations, that’s to say those producing huge amounts of greenhouse gases, were obligated to monitor the exhaust they produced, while developing nations, including Armenia, assumed a relatively modest share of responsibility in this field. To date, the IPCC has published four overall assessment reports regarding climate change, in addition to summary reports and reference guides on the subject. As a result of the work carried out by the IPCC almost all nations of the world are convinced that climate change is human-induced and that there’s no alternative but to take measures to combat the problem. I have served as the IPCC specialist in Armenia since 1995.

What work is being conducted in Armenia in the field of climate change and to what extent should the consequences of global warming be of concern to our Republic?

In Armenia, as of 1996, the national project entitled, “Armenia - A Country Study of Climate Change” was undertaken. Its aim was to study the issue within the parameters of Armenia. The project published its first report in 1998 which presented, in detail, the potential consequences of global warming for Armenia and approaches to counter them. These can be seen in certain areas of the country, specifically the intensified process of desertification in the Ararat Plain, the decrease in forested areas, and vulnerability of water resources which will leave its mark on the Lake Sevan issue given that evaporation amounts will greatly increase, etc.

Taking this sad reality into account, that’s to say that the environment in Armenia has long been viewed as a resource to be exploited rather than protected, is it  thus correct to consider the negative effects of global warming, that always aren’t clearly manifested, as so alarming?

If you are talking about illegal acts of deforestation, the short-sighted exploitation of Sevan’s water resources and a host of other undesirable occurrences we should not forget that these are directly caused by human intervention and that however reprehensible they may be they can also be undone by humans as well. People can at least partially restore the damage inflicted and make compensation for the losses. But when the forests and water resources are imperiled by the climatic causes, that’s to say by changes to their natural conditions, it becomes much more difficult to restore them, and at times impossible.