UN experts 95% certain humans causing climate change
View of the Norvegian fjord Kongsfjord off the coast of Ny-Alesund on June 5, 2010. Photo: AFP.Top climate scientists took a big step on Friday toward raising the probability that most global warming is man-made to at least 95 percent in a report that outlines risks to the planet from rising temperatures, delegates said. Delegates completed a line-by-line review of a report that will be a guide for government action to slow warming, they said. The meeting, of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, still had to formally adopt the full text later on Friday.
International scientists are 95 percent sure human activities are the main cause of global warming, an U.N. report to be released Friday is expected to say.
The report by the UN\’s climate panel details the physical evidence behind climate change.
On the ground, in the air, in the oceans, global warming is "unequivocal", it explained.
It adds that a pause in warming over the past 15 years is too short to reflect long-term trends.
The panel warns that continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all aspects of the climate system.
"The hard work is done," one scientist said after the overnight talks of scientists and governments approved the key findings at the end of a week of meetings in Stockholm.
They agreed that it was "extremely likely," or a probability of at least 95 percent, that human influences on the climate have been the dominant factor in rising temperatures since the mid-20th century, delegates said.
The U.N. panel predicted that global average temperatures would rise by 0.3 to 4.8 degrees Celsius by 2100. The panel also predicted a rise in sea levels from 26 to 82 centimeters in that same period.
That is up from a probability of at least 90 percent in the last report in 2007 and 66 in 2001.
Source: Agencies
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