Tackling Climate Change by Degrees

2°C may not sound much but, in terms of climate change, it literally could make a world of difference. In 2010, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Cancún agreed that allowing global average temperatures to rise by above that amount, compared with pre-industrial levels, would pose unacceptably high risks of dangerous climate impacts occurring. Crucially, the LWEC-accredited AVOID (Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change) Programme has concluded that preventing such an increase is challenging but achievable –equipping policy-makers with the sound foundation of science essential to developing and driving through effective emissions reduction strategies.

Dangerous climate change might see extreme coastal and river flooding and widespread extinctions among animal and plant populations. It might even trigger irreversible melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps and push Earth beyond a climatic ‘tipping point’.

“The UK Government set up AVOID specifically to deliver evidence-based advice on climate change,”says Jason Lowe, the programme’s Chief Scientist. “Pooling expertise from four leading research centres, AVOID aims to answer three big questions. What levels of climate change are potentially dangerous? What actions on emissions can avoid dangerous climate change? Finally, how feasible are such actions?”

AVOID played a key role in producing the agenda-setting EU report ‘Scientific Perspectives after Copenhagen’. This demonstrated that global greenhouse emissions need to peak before or around 2020 and then fall by 50% or more by mid-century, compared with 1990 levels.

“It’s important that policy-making is advised by the most relevant and up-to-date scientific information available,”

said Belgian Government Ministers Paul Magnette and Sabine Laruelle about this flagship, thought-provoking publicationwhich you can download below.