The latest climate science30 September 2013
Climate change is happening and is largely man-made. We should be worried, but we can still avert the worst.
This will be the take-home message from scientists in a new series of reports in 2013 and 2014 on the latest scientific knowledge on climate change.
These reports will tell us:
- The speed of current and future warming
- Impacts on humans and wildlife
- Ways to cut greenhouse gases and adapt to some climate change
- A summary outlook.
See here for more information on the process and our earlier predictions for the first report. The first report was published in two parts, a summary on 27 September and the full report today
Speed of global warming
The first report tells us that man-made climate change is already creating extreme weather globally and worse is yet to come. This is devastating news for the poorest people who will suffer the most.
It includes a carbon pollution limit if we want to avoid 2 degrees of warming. This shows that the vast majority of fossil fuels we have need to stay in the ground and that it's sheer folly to look for more such as shale gas through fracking.
Have a look at our overview for more information and here is a reaction from some of the biggest environmental and development groups.
Climate science is very clear
In a podcast for Friends of the Earth one of the UK's leading climate scientists Kevin Anderson tells us that there are no surprises in the new IPCC reports. He warns that we are on-track for an average global temperature rise of 4 degrees by 2100, and that the rise over land will be much higher.
If we're serious about climate change we can no longer just tinker at the fringes. This report gives us a very clear and basic message: we need to cut our carbon.
Professor Kevin Anderson
Listen to the latest podcast right here.
Below that you'll find his previous podcast, published ahead of the first report.
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More coming soon
The second, third and final IPCC reports in this cycle are expected in 2014. We'll update this page when we know more.
You can also stay up to date on our climate hub.
Take action
As Kevin Anderson says, we need to cut carbon pollution, save energy, shift to renewable energy and leave fossil fuels in the ground. Please take action against fracking in the UK today.
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