This guide, while it aims to present the substance and the sense of the IPCC’s original Synthesis Report, is designed to be read as a narrative. So it tells the story in a simplifed language while taking the liberty of shortening or enhancing specifc parts where it appears useful and illustrating the text with additional graphics. You will always fnd the source of the data mentioned if it differs from the IPCC’s own. The guide covers the six original topic headings as in the Summary for Policymakers but the order in which they are presented here differs from the IPCC publication. It starts by spelling out what the IPCC knows and what it considers as key questions.

Although the guide is intended for lay readers, not climate scientists, inevitably it uses some scientifc terms. Readers will fnd a fuller explanation of some of them in the short Glos- sary at the end of the guide: they appear in the text in italics. In their assessment reports, the IPCC uses commonly used terms with a very specifc meaning. In order to simplify the language, this guide abandon these specialized terms. The IPCC also uses several terms which are likely to be self-ex- planatory: they include high agreement/medium agreement and high evidence/medium evidence. The term “agreement” refers to agreement found within the scientifc literature.