Climate Change and Sustainable Development Linkages: Points of Departure from the Ipcc Tar

The wide ranging potential impacts of climate change on sustainable development and vice versa, suggest that the linkages between these two topics need to be critically analysed. Such an analysis was attempted in the IPCC third assessment report (TAR), and while some progress was made, the work was incomplete. This paper summarizes key lessons from the TAR and relevant post-TAR findings, as a starting point for preparations for the fourth assessment report (AR4). Results are presented within a transdisciplinary integrative framework (sustainomics), which is applied to the nexus of sustainable development and climate change.