Key climate indicators such as global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise and extreme climatic events are already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which contemporary society and economy have developed. This is one of the key messages of a report presented by leading scientists in Brussels today in preparation for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. The up-to-date overview of research relevant to climate change was handed over to the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the host of the conference. "We have covered new findings on climate science, climate impacts on society and the environment, and effective tools and approaches to deal with these challenges," says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and member of the writing team. "The scientific findings presented in this update create by themselves a sense of urgency that we hope will lead the Copenhagen conference to success," says Schellnhuber, who advises the German government on global change issues. In Copenhagen a follow-up to the Kyoto protocol will be debated.The Synthesis Report summarises new knowledge that was presented at the congress "Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions" at the University of Copenhagen in March this year. Approximately 2500 people from nearly 80 countries attended the congress with over 1400 scientific presentations. "The bottom line is that limiting global warming to a manageable extent will require all our ingenuity for the climate-smart evolution of existing structures," says Schellnhuber. Yet large-scale transformational measures would also be needed.
Key climate indicators such as global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise and extreme climatic events are already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which contemporary society and economy have developed. This is one of the key messages of a report presented by leading scientists in Brussels today in preparation for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. The up-to-date overview of research relevant to climate change was handed over to the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the host of the conference.
"We have covered new findings on climate science, climate impacts on society and the environment, and effective tools and approaches to deal with these challenges," says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and member of the writing team. "The scientific findings presented in this update create by themselves a sense of urgency that we hope will lead the Copenhagen conference to success," says Schellnhuber, who advises the German government on global change issues. In Copenhagen a follow-up to the Kyoto protocol will be debated.The Synthesis Report summarises new knowledge that was presented at the congress "Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions" at the University of Copenhagen in March this year. Approximately 2500 people from nearly 80 countries attended the congress with over 1400 scientific presentations. "The bottom line is that limiting global warming to a manageable extent will require all our ingenuity for the climate-smart evolution of existing structures," says Schellnhuber. Yet large-scale transformational measures would also be needed.
The Synthesis Report can be found here (pdf!).
Even today's atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are high enough to cause a global increase in temperature of between 2 and 2.4 degrees Celsius. "Drastic and immediate" emissions reductions would be "impossible," the paper, which was presented in Brussels on Thursday, argues. The concentration of these gases will thus continue to increase in upcoming decades. The researchers write: "An overshoot of the atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations needed to constrain global warming to 2 degrees Celsius is thus inevitable." The paper is 39 pages long and includes among its 12 authors Nicolas Stern, a London-based environmental economist, and Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The "Synthesis Report" summarizes the results of the Climate Change Congress that took place in Copenhagen in March -- an event which included roughly 2,500 participants and over 1,400 papers.
Even today's atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are high enough to cause a global increase in temperature of between 2 and 2.4 degrees Celsius. "Drastic and immediate" emissions reductions would be "impossible," the paper, which was presented in Brussels on Thursday, argues. The concentration of these gases will thus continue to increase in upcoming decades. The researchers write: "An overshoot of the atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations needed to constrain global warming to 2 degrees Celsius is thus inevitable."
The paper is 39 pages long and includes among its 12 authors Nicolas Stern, a London-based environmental economist, and Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The "Synthesis Report" summarizes the results of the Climate Change Congress that took place in Copenhagen in March -- an event which included roughly 2,500 participants and over 1,400 papers.
