Introduction Climate Change dossier

In the past few centuries atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has increased by more than 30% as a consequence of human activities, resulting in higher temperatures. The most advanced climate models are driven by a range of plausible assumptions for future emissions of all types (natural and anthropogenic drivers), and make it clear that the overall effect of human activity on the atmosphere is almost certainly a net positive forcing — anthropogenic warming. Now climate change is widely considered to be one of the most potentially serious environmental problems ever confronting the global community.

This concern is reflected in the main goal of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which calls for stabilisation of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations below “dangerous” levels, presumably through mitigation measures. The ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on the 16th of February 2005 was the first step in these mitigation measures. However, further action is needed to reach stabilisation of the greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere.