Foreword
In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate The main purpose of this short guide is to help bridging
Change (IPCC) shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the gap between science and policy and to increase
former US Vice President Al Gore for their work to public awareness about the urgency of action to com-
provide policy makers and the general public around bat climate change and its impacts. This booklet is in-
the world with the best possible science base for tended for those who do not have the time – and may
understanding and combating the increasing threat not have the scientific expertise – to read the entire
from climate change. But as the messages from the Synthesis Report from the IPCC.
scientists are becoming increasingly explicit, the
gap between the need for action they project and Special thanks to Svein Tveitdal of Klima 2020 and
the climate policy the world leaders put in place is former director of Grid-Arendal, for the initiative for
steadily increasing. this booklet and his valuable contribution to the con-
tent. We would also like to express our gratitude to the
One illustration is the trend in emissions of green- Swedish Environment Protection Agency and Earth-
house gases. According to the IPCC global emissions Print Ltd for additional financial support.
would need to peak between 2000 and 2015 in order
to limit the global temperature increase to between 2 Arendal and Oslo, February 10, 2009
and 2.4ºC compared to pre-industrial times. In 2007,
when ideally the emissions should have peaked, the
world instead experienced a new record in annual
emission increase. For each day we fail to twist de- Peter Prokosch, Ellen Hambro,
velopment towards a low-carbon society, the damage Director, Director General,
to the world’s ecosystems become more severe, and GRID-Arendal Norwegian Pollution
the costs of mitigation and adaptation increases. Control Authority (SFT)
How to Use This Guide
This guide, while it aims to present the substance and the Although the guide is intended for lay readers, not climate
sense of the IPCC’s original Synthesis Report, is designed scientists, inevitably it uses some scientific terms. Readers
to be read as a narrative. So it tells the story in a simplified will find a fuller explanation of some of them in the short Glos-
language while taking the liberty of shortening or enhancing sary at the end of the guide: they appear in the text in italics.
specific parts where it appears useful and illustrating the text In their assessment reports, the IPCC uses commonly used
with additional graphics. You will always find the source of the terms with a very specific meaning. In order to simplify the
data mentioned if it differs from the IPCC’s own. The guide language, this guide abandon these specialized terms. The
covers the six original topic headings as in the Summary for IPCC also uses several terms which are likely to be self-ex-
Policymakers but the order in which they are presented here planatory: they include high agreement/medium agreement
differs from the IPCC publication. It starts by spelling out what and high evidence/medium evidence. The term “agreement”
the IPCC knows and what it considers as key questions. refers to agreement found within the scientific literature.
4 Planet in Peril
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