UN Secretary General says: "The heat is on. We must act" as landmark climate change report is published
Fri 27 September 2013
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Scientists are 95% certain that human activity is the 'dominant cause' of climate change since the 1950s and there is 'unequivocal' evidence that global warming is affecting the ground, air and oceans according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) latest report, the first to be published for six years.
Since the 1950s, the report says, many of the observed changes in the climate system are "unprecedented over decades to millennia". Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth's surface, and warmer than any period since 1850, and probably warmer than any time in the past 1,400 years.
The report says that the pause in warming which has been recorded over the past 15 years is too short to reflect long-term trends and warns that continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all aspects of the climate system.
The agreed text says that to contain these changes will require "substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions".
The IPCC's working group which prepared the report is comprised of 209 lead authors and 50 review editors from 39 countries, including the World's leading climate scientists. More than 600 contributing authors from 32 countries contributed to the preparation of the report.
The publication followed a week of intense negotiations in Stockholm. It includes a 36-page summary for policymakers on the physical science of global warming. The report represents the first of three publications from the IPCC with the others due over the next year.
The BBC reported that Prof Thomas Stocker, a co-chair of the IPCC said that climate change "challenges the two primary resources of humans and ecosystems, land and water. In short, it threatens our planet, our only home".
The scientists say ocean warming dominates the increase in energy stored in the climate system, accounting for 90% of energy accumulated between 1971 and 2010.
Introducing the report, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "The heat is on. We must act." He added that World leaders must now respond to an "unequivocal" message from climate scientists and act with policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Lord Nicholas Stern, author of a highly influential report on the economics of climate change said: "Following the publication of the IPCC report... I would expect more countries to follow the example set by the UK, and to introduce domestic legislation to create the necessary commitment to reduce emissions in line with the goal of avoiding global warming of more than 2°C.
"Many countries, including the biggest emitters, are increasing action against climate change and not waiting for an international agreement.
"Not only do they recognise the huge risks created by unmanaged climate change, but they see the big economic opportunities presented by the transition to low-carbon growth and development. These actions will, in turn, reinforce movement towards an international agreement."
Professor Stern said the European Union should show leadership on the road to a new international agreement in 2015 and provide a strong example by setting a target to "reduce its emissions by at least 50% by 2030 compared with 1990".
"It can and should do this. Anything less would be a failure to show the required ambition."
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