Climate Change Picks Up Pace, New IPCC Report Warns

Tuesday, 23 June 2009 12:38

"The world faces a growing risk of abrupt and irreversible climatic shifts," concluded a report issued by climate scientists on Thursday. The 36-page document summarized over 1,400 studies presented at a climate conference last March in Copenhagen with some 2,000 scientists from over 70 countries in attendance, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) reports.

The report, written and reviewed by many of the scientists who also compiled the benchmark UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2007, presents new scientific evidence indicating that ocean temperatures, sea levels, extreme climate conditions and the retreat of the Arctic have picked up more pace than experts predicted two years ago.

According to the report, huge stores of gases, such as methane trapped for millennia in the Arctic permafrost, may be starting to leak into the atmosphere. It is stressed that substantial and early emission cuts are critical to slowing down the global warming process. The report is intended to provide inspiration to world leaders who will convene in Copenhagen in December to formalize the climate agreement that will follow the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

As a series of reports released in the United States and Europe in recent weeks indicate that climate change is posing a serious global threat, UN officials stressed during a meeting of the General Assembly in New York that renewable, clean energy offers the world hope not only of combating climate change but also of reversing the global economic crisis.