The eighth session of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II took place at the Charlemagne Building, Brussels, Belgium, from 2-6 April 2007. The meeting was attended by 366 participants, including scientists and representatives from governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations. The meeting resulted in the acceptance of Working Group II's (WGII) contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), titled "Climate Change 2007: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability," including approval of the Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) and acceptance of the underlying report and Technical Summary.

The key findings of the SPM emphasize the observed and projected impacts of climate change, including accumulating evidence that changes in many physical and biological systems are linked to anthropogenic warming. According to the SPM, observed and projected impacts of climate change include various changes in the natural environment, flooding, and food and water shortages. Among other things, the SPM states that 20-30% of plant and animal species are likely to face extinction with temperature rises exceeding 1.5-2.5°C. It indicates that hundreds of millions of people will be exposed to increased water stress, many millions more people are projected to be exposed to flooding every year, and access to food in many African countries is projected to be severely compromised. The SPM also highlights other vulnerabilities and potential negative impacts of climate change on sustainable development. It states that adaptation will be necessary to the already unavoidable warming, but many impacts can be avoided, reduced or delayed by mitigation.

The process leading to the adoption of the SPM was generally viewed as laborious. At the meeting, delegates addressed the five sections of the SPM, however they did not even consider the last two sections until after 10:00 pm on the final day of negotiations. The meeting was scheduled to end on Thursday, 5 April, with a press conference on Friday morning. Nevertheless, discussions on the SPM continued throughout the night and the SPM was finalized at 10:00 am on Friday morning and formally adopted that afternoon. More information