Decisions on whether to prepare an IPCC Special Report, its scope, outline and the workplan for preparing it are taken by the IPCC Panel and the respective Working Group in plenary session.
Policymakers and other users of IPCC reports may be consulted in order to identify key policy-relevant issues.

IPCC Special Reports focus on one topic, unlike the Assessment Reports published periodically, covering the scientific areas of each Working Group in their full breadth.

The IPCC Panel approved the development of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) under the responsibility of Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change) at its 28th Session, held in Budapest on 9-10 April 2008.

Prior to that, a scoping meeting had been organised to support a decision on the Special Report by the IPCC Plenary, which was held in Lübeck, Germany from 20 to 25 January 2008.