Following production of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report in 2005, SCAR decided that a southern hemisphere equivalent was required, and set about producing it. 100 scientists from 13 countries contributed as authors, and the manuscript was worked up by an editorial team of 9, headed by Dr John Turner of the British Antarctic Survey - reflecting the fact that the work began as a project of SCAR's "Antarctica in the Global Climate System" scientific research programme, of which he was at the time the scientific leader. The project expanded through time to incorporate the past climate dimension, provided by scientists from SCAR's "Antarctic Climate Evolution" programme, and the biological impacts, provided by scientists from SCAR's "Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic" programme.

The completed report was printed in October and has been mailed to authors and to the Heads of Delegations to the 15th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Conference on Climate Change, which takes place in Copenhagen in December. SCAR produced only 500 hard copies, having decided that this ought to be a web-based product that was readily available at no cost to the entire scientific community. It was felt that this is the sort of scientific service SCAR should be providing to the community. Remaining hard copies will in addition go to SCAR national committees and delegates, to COMNAP and to the Treaty Parties as well as to a wide selection of polar and other libraries. Elements of the report have already been published as scientific papers in Reviews of Geophysics (January 2009) and will appear in the December issue of the Antarctic Science Journal. Annual reviews of the science of climate change in the Antarctic, based on the ongoing work in the report, have been presented to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and the associated Committee on Environmental Protection.

The editors are most grateful to the many authors who contributed text, to the many reviewers who commented on the circulated drafts in summer 2007 and summer 2008, and to their parent institutions for allowing them the time to contribute to this magnum opus. No doubt with more time and effort an even better job could have been done, but the end result is a volume that will be a landmark for many years and that will guide future research directions in SCAR and at the national level. SCAR will continue supplying annual updates on climate to the ATCM, and will in due course update the ACCE report itself as the science evolves. Thanks go to all those involved in the report's production, and to BAS for providing support for the press conference at the Science Media Centre in London on November 30, at which the book was formally launched.

The report is available from the ACCE page of the SCAR website at http://www.scar.org/publications/occasionals/acce.html, along with copies of the press release, and a document detailing the main 10 points from the report. For further enquiries, consult the SCAR Executive Director at cps32[at]cam.ac.uk.