Summer Banks
SaraJClimate Change reference materials
February 12th 2007 08:01
There are 2 documents I will refer to a lot, so I thought it best I quickly introduce you to them and tell you where to find them
Firstly, the most important reference for the scientific basis behind Climate Change, and also for the link between Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases is: Climate Change 2007: the Physical Science Basis, which was recently put out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC have published previous reports making predictions about the physical effects of Climate Change, and the great thing about the latest report is that it compares the predictions made by the third assessment (published in 2001) with 6 years of research. Only the summary of the Fourth Assessment is currently available, with more comprehensive information being available in March. However, if you wish to delve into the predicted changes further I thoroughly recommend you review the third assessment. It is broken down into geographical regions and is easy to follow. It is available on the website http://www.ipcc.ch/
Another reasonably recent, and incredibly important document is the Stern Review: the economics of Climate Change. The Stern Review was released in October 2006, and was commissioned by the UK government. It examines different scenarios for responding to, or ignoring Climate Change and concludes that responding to Climate Change economically makes sense as the cost of ignoring climate change will eventually damage economic growth. The cost of responding to the threat is estimated as being approximately 1% of Global GDP per year, while the cost of ignoring it will result in losses of between 1 and 10% of Global GDP per year depending on the increase in temperature.
I will be analysing these reports in detail.
Firstly, the most important reference for the scientific basis behind Climate Change, and also for the link between Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases is: Climate Change 2007: the Physical Science Basis, which was recently put out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC have published previous reports making predictions about the physical effects of Climate Change, and the great thing about the latest report is that it compares the predictions made by the third assessment (published in 2001) with 6 years of research. Only the summary of the Fourth Assessment is currently available, with more comprehensive information being available in March. However, if you wish to delve into the predicted changes further I thoroughly recommend you review the third assessment. It is broken down into geographical regions and is easy to follow. It is available on the website http://www.ipcc.ch/
Another reasonably recent, and incredibly important document is the Stern Review: the economics of Climate Change. The Stern Review was released in October 2006, and was commissioned by the UK government. It examines different scenarios for responding to, or ignoring Climate Change and concludes that responding to Climate Change economically makes sense as the cost of ignoring climate change will eventually damage economic growth. The cost of responding to the threat is estimated as being approximately 1% of Global GDP per year, while the cost of ignoring it will result in losses of between 1 and 10% of Global GDP per year depending on the increase in temperature.
I will be analysing these reports in detail.
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