The
Scientific Consensus on Climate Change
The
scientific community agrees global climate
change is occurring and human activities are
contributing to climate change. The
following eight scientific reports and
international agreements demonstrate this
global consensus.
National
Science Academies Issue Joint Statement on
Climate Change (June 7, 2005)
Eleven
national science academies called on world
leaders “to acknowledge that the threat of
climate change is clear and increasing.” In
the statement
Global Response to Climate Change, the science academies of Brazil,
Canada, China, France, Germany, India,
Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom,
and the United States jointly declared that
“there is now strong evidence that
significant global warming is occurring”
and “the scientific understanding of
climate change is sufficiently clear to
justify nations taking prompt action.”
More information via National
Academy of Sciences.
Kyoto
Protocol Enters into Force, Ratified by over
150 Countries (February
16, 2005)
One
hundred fifty countries and regional
economic organizations have ratified the
Kyoto Protocol to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC). Signatories to the
treaty agree to legally binding targets to
limit or reduce their greenhouse gas
emissions--a major contributor to global
warming. With Russia’s ascension to the
treaty on November 18, 2004, countries
accounting for 62 percent of the total
carbon dioxide emissions in 1990 had
ratified the protocol. It came into force on
February 16, 2005. More information via UNFCCC.
The
Scientific Consensus on Climate Change (December
3, 2004)
An
analysis published in Science
of 928 peer-reviewed scientific papers on
climate change issues found none disagreed
with the “consensus of scientific opinion
that Earth's climate is heating up and human
activities are part of the reason.” The
papers were drawn from a random sample of
the more than 11,000 scientific papers on
climate change written between 1993 and
2003. For more information see: Oreskes,
Naomi. 2004. The scientific consensus on
climate change. Science.
306,
1686.
Arctic Climate Impact
Assessment (November
9, 2004)
The Arctic Climate
Impact Assessment (ACIA) is an
intergovernmental report based on a
four-year scientific study of the Arctic
conducted by an international team of 300
scientists and sponsored by the eight arctic
nations (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland,
Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United
States) and six indigenous people’s
organizations. The assessment determined
that “the Arctic is now experiencing some
of the most rapid and severe climate change
on Earth. Over the next 100 years, climate
change is expected to accelerate,
contributing to major physical, ecological,
social, and economic changes, many of which
have already begun.” In response to the
assessment, the eight nations of the Arctic
Council agreed to pursue mitigation,
adaptation, research and monitoring and
outreach strategies to improve awareness and
implement successful responses to climatic
challenges in the Arctic. More information
via Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.
Our
Changing Planet, the US Climate Change
Science Program’s Report (July
2004)
The
US Climate Change Science Program’s 2004
report to Congress, Our Changing Planet, US Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Years
2004 and 2005, signed by the Secretary
of Commerce, the Secretary of Energy, and
the Director of the Office of Science and
Technology Policy, found that the global
temperature increases observed in the latter
half of the 20th century can only be
replicated if human influences are included
in the models. Simulations by the Department
of Energy, shown on page 47 of the report,
“show that observed globally averaged
surface air temperatures can be replicated
only when both anthropogenic forcings—for
example, greenhouse gases—as well as
natural forcings such as solar variability
and volcanic eruptions are included in the
model.” More information via US
Climate Change Science Program.
National
Academy of Sciences’ Review of IPCC Third
Assessment Report
(July 1, 2001)
At
the request of the White House, the National
Academy of Sciences Committee on the Science
of Climate Change reviewed the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’
(IPCC) third assessment report on climate
change and produced a report, Climate
Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key
Questions. The report determined that “the
IPCC’s conclusion that most of the
observed warming of the last 50 years is
likely to have been due to the increase in
greenhouse gas concentrations accurately
reflects the current thinking of the
scientific community on this issue.”
Furthermore, “greenhouse gases are
accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere as a
result of human activities, causing surface
air temperatures and subsurface ocean
temperatures to rise.”
More information via National
Academy of Sciences.
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment
Report (2001)
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) Third
Assessment Report-Climate Change 2001,
the consensus of scientific opinion agrees
that human activities are affecting the
Earth’s climate. “Human
activities—primarily burning of fossil
fuels and changes in land cover—are
modifying the concentration of atmospheric
constituents ... that absorb or scatter
radiant energy.” In addition, “most of
the observed warming over the last 50 years
is likely to have been due to the increase
in greenhouse gas concentrations.” The Third
Assessment Report was written by 637
authors and reviewed by 420 experts.
More information via Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change.
United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (1992)
One
hundred eighty-eight countries and the
European Union have ratified the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC), agreeing that they are
“concerned that human activities have been
substantially increasing the atmospheric
concentrations of greenhouse gases, that
these increases enhance the natural
greenhouse effect, and that this will result
on average in an additional warming of the
Earth's surface and atmosphere and may
adversely affect natural ecosystems and
humankind.” The United States ratified the
UNFCCC on November 15, 1992 and it entered
into force on March 21, 1994. More
information via UNFCCC.
For more
information, please contact Fred Beck
at 202/662-1892 or fbeck@eesi.org.