Science Panel Outlines Roadmap for Reducing Risks
from Climate Change

NEW YORK, NY (February 27, 2007)  – The United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation) and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, released today "Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable, " the final report of the Scientific Expert Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. The report, prepared as input for the upcoming meeting of the UN’s Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), outlines a roadmap for preventing unmanageable climate changes and adapting to the degree of change that can no longer be avoided.

Two years in the making, the report was written by a panel of eminent scientists from around the world. The panel was co-chaired by Dr. Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and Dr. Rosina Bierbaum, Dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment. The expert team was invited by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Secretariat to the CSD, to make recommendations on key mitigation and adaptation needs. This year’s 15^th Session of the CSD is reviewing national and international efforts on energy and climate change.

"Two starkly different futures diverge from this time forward," the report cautions. "Society’s current path leads to increasingly serious climate-change impacts… The other path … will reduce dangerous emissions, create economic opportunity, help to reduce global poverty, reduce degradation and carbon emissions from ecosystems, and contribute to sustainability. Humanity must act collectively and urgently to change course through leadership at all levels of society. There is no more time for delay."

"This report defines the seriousness and urgency that must characterize global efforts to respond to the unfolding and far-reaching challenge of climate change. Confronting Climate Change makes clear that we must start immediately to stabilize and then substantially reverse the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions," said Timothy E. Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation. "The international community should be grateful that this remarkable panel of scientific all-stars from around the world has provided a roadmap for mitigating and adapting to climate change. And they have told us that there is tremendous economic opportunity in doing so."

"Our report makes clear that the challenge before us is to reduce the risk of climate change resulting in intolerable global impacts," said Peter H. Raven, Past President of Sigma Xi, Presidential Medal of Science recipient and preeminent biodiversity expert. "Our recommendations are designed to help the international community get on a path to stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and managing the impacts of climate change. Unlike many reports from scientists, this report gives very clear recommendations for what the international community and nations themselves must do to mitigate and adapt to climate change. These steps will contribute to achievement of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals; failing to do so will make those goals much harder, if not impossible to reach."

"It is still possible to avoid an unmanageable degree of climate change, but the time for action is now," said John Holdren, the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard University, Director of the Woods Hole Research Center, and Chairman of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "The global-average surface temperature has already risen about 0.8°C above pre-industrial levels and is projected to rise another 2-4°C by 2100 if CO₂ emissions and concentrations grow according to mid-range projections. Prudence dictates limiting the average temperature increase to no more than 2-2.5°C above the pre-industrial level, and our report offers clear recommendations for achieving that goal."

"The world is experiencing climate disruption now and the increases in droughts, floods, and sea level rise that will occur in the coming decades will cause enormous human suffering and economic losses. The poorest are likely the most vulnerable. We imperil our children’s and grandchildren’s future if we fail to improve society’s capacity to adapt to a changing climate," said Rosina Bierbaum, former Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "We can manage water better, bolster disaster preparedness, increase surveillance for emerging diseases, make cities more resilient, move vulnerable populations and prepare for environmental refugees, design more drought-tolerant crops, use natural resources more sustainably, and enhance local capacity to cope with a suite of expected changes."

Dr Janice Lough, a climatologist from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the only Australian member of the expert panel that authored the report, contributed expertise in climate change impacts in tropical marine ecosystems. Dr Lough says that the world is already committed to some degree of climate change which will impact our environment and the way we live. "This report is first and foremost a call for global leaders and decision makers to drive social change but there will be a major role for environmental managers to play in attempting to cope with unavoidable threats to ecosystems. In Australia, some of our most precious ecosystems including the world heritage listed Great Barrier Reef are facing real and imminent threats of permanent alteration as coral communities decrease and reefs of the GBR shift from being dominated by corals to reefs dominated by algae and filter feeders. This could lead to the loss of ecological goods and services provided by the GBR including commercial values associated with tourism and fisheries.  Ultimately, climate change will impact every person on the planet and we must act now as communities, as politicians, as scientists, as managers and as individuals to prevent what could be an environmental disaster."

The report covers an overview of the science of climate change; the importance of avoiding the risk of major impacts of climate change; options for mitigation; and steps that can be taken to prepare to adapt to anticipated climate change.

Among the report’s key findings are:

• Exceeding global average temperature increases above 2-2.5°C above the 1750 pre-industrial level would entail "sharply increasing risk of intolerable impacts."

A Microsoft PowerPoint Slide Presentation can be downloaded at:
Australian Institute of Marine Science web site.

The coordinating lead authors of the report were Rosina Bierbaum, Professor and Dean, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, United States; John P. Holdren, Director, The Woods Hole Research Center, and Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard University, United States; Michael MacCracken, Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs, Climate Institute, United States; Richard H. Moss, Senior Director, Climate and Energy, United Nations Foundation and University of Maryland, United States; and Peter H. Raven, President, Missouri Botanical Garden, United States. Other lead authors on the report were: Ulisses Confalonieri, Professor, National School of Public Health and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Jacques "Jack" Dubois, Member of the Executive Board, Swiss Re, United States; Alexander Ginzburg, Deputy Director, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation; Peter H. Gleick, President, Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, United States; Zara Khatib, Technology Marketing Manager, Shell International, United Arab Emirates; Janice Lough, Principal Research Scientist, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Australia; Ajay Mathur, President, Senergy Global Private Limited, India; Mario Molina, Professor, University of California, San Diego, United States, and President, Mario Molina Center, Mexico; Keto Mshigeni, Vice Chancellor, The Hubert Kairuki Memorial University, Tanzania; Nebojsa "Naki" Nakicenovic, Professor, Vienna University of Technology, and Program Leader, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria; Taikan Oki, Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan; Hans Joachim "John" Schellnhuber, Professor and Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany; and Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Professor, Central European University, Hungary.

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society is an international honor society for research scientists and engineers, with more than 500 chapters and 60,000 members in North America and around the world. The society sponsors a number of programs that promote science and engineering and also publishes American Scientist magazine.  Sigma Xi’s administrative offices are in Research Triangle Park, N.C. www.sigmaxi.org

The UN Foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. The UN Foundation builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems and also works to broaden support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach.  The UN Foundation is a public charity. www.unfoundation.org

Media contacts:

Wendy Ellery, AIMS Media Liaison
Telephone: +61 (0)7 4753 4409
Mobile: 0418 729 265
Email: w.ellery@aims.gov.au