Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Europe has to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and people must adapt now to lessen the adverse impacts of climate change, according to a European Union (EU) Green Paper. Stavros Dimas, EU environment commissioner, warned that "people all over Europe will increasingly feel the threatening effects of climate change on their health, jobs and housing, and the most vulnerable members of society will be the hardest hit." The Green Paper identifies options for coping with climate change and is intended to stimulate public debate on adaptation across Europe.

The Green Paper identifies four lines of priority action. First, early action is needed to develop adaptation strategies in areas where current knowledge is sufficient. Second, global adaptation needs must be integrated into the EU's external relations, building a new alliance with partners around the world. Third, knowledge gaps must be filled. Finally, a European advisory group on adaptation to climate change must be set up to analyze coordinated strategies and actions. "Unless the EU and its member states plan a coherent policy response in advance, we could be forced into taking sudden, unplanned adaptation measures to react to increasingly frequent crises and disasters. This would prove far more costly," Dimas said.

Business leaders at the annual summit of the United Nations Global Compact endorsed the Caring for Climate platform. "The 'Caring for Climate' platform sets the stage for individual and collective actions on climate change, and sends a powerful message to businesses, governments and consumers everywhere about the need for leadership and early action," said Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general.

The Caring for Climate statement recognizes that the climate problem requires "urgent and extensive action on the part of governments, business and citizens if the risk of serious damage to global prosperity and security is to be avoided." The statement commits signatories to increase energy efficiency and reduce the carbon burden, setting voluntary targets. Signatories also commit to build capacity to understand fully the implications of climate change and to develop coherent business strategies for minimizing risks and identifying opportunities, to engage fully and positively with governments, inter-governmental organizations and civil society organizations to develop policies and measures, and to work collaboratively with other enterprises, by setting standards and taking joint climate-related initiatives. Finally, they will aim to become active business champions for rapid and extensive response to climate change.

Solar variability is not a cause of recent temperature trends, according to new research. "Over the past 20 years, all the trends in the sun that could have had an influence on Earth's climate have been in the opposite direction to that required to explain the observed rise in global mean temperatures," states a recent article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

Mike Lockwood of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot in the United Kingdom and Claus Fröhlich of the World Radiation Centre in Davos, Switzerland, estimated the potential effect on the Earth's climate of a range of solar variables. None could explain the rapid rise in global temperature since the 1980s. Greenhouse sceptics cite solar variability, rather than human activity, as a likely cause of recent temperature trends. "This should settle the debate," said Lockwood.