Avoiding dangerous climate change: International symposium on the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations

The Third Assessment Report (2001) of the IPCC (TAR) reviewed in depth all the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of climate change. It concluded that there was strong evidence that climate change due to human emissions of greenhouse gases was already occurring and that future emissions of greenhouse gases were likely to raise global temperatures by between 1.4 and 5.8 C during this century, with a wide range of impacts on the natural world and human society. Building on the TAR, the conference on Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, considered three scientific questions relating to stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at levels which would avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change. These questions were: 1. For different levels of climate change what are the key impacts, for different regions and sectors and for the world as a whole? 2. What would such levels of climate change imply in terms of greenhouse gas stabilisation concentrations and emission pathways required to achieve such levels? 3. What options are there for achieving stabilisation of greenhouse gases at different stabilisation concentrations in the atmosphere, taking into account costs and uncertainties? The findings presented at the conference addressed different aspects of these questions.