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Climate - It's getting hot by ClimateExperts

Discuss and learn more about climate change with WWF and IUCN experts.

Copenhagen is over but we are not done yet. After years of negotiations we only have yet another political declaration which does not bind anyone and therefore fails to guarantee a safer future for next generations. Politically, we live in a world that agrees to stay below the danger zone of two degrees, but in the absence of legally-binding commitments, what we have on the table adds up to 3 degrees or more. This gap between the rhetoric and reality could cost millions of lives, hundreds of billions of dollars and a wealth of lost opportunities. The biggest challenge, turning the political will into a legally-binding agreement has moved to the next UN talks to be held in Mexico at the end of 2010. We are disappointed but remain hopeful. The civil society will continue watching every step of further negotiations. The leaders have to get back to work tomorrow. We’re not done yet.

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Background on climate

Climate change is with us. Sea levels are rising, ice is melting, temperatures are increasing, and the consequences are major. This is not “just” about polar bears and pandas anymore, it’s about us humans and our survival. We need to act now and 2009 needs to be remembered as the year the world found an answer to climate change.

What is climate change?

We know the world is warming, global average temperature has increased by 0.74°C during the past century, with most of that since 1970.

Human-made CO2 is responsible for the vast majority of the warming.

Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are now almost 40 per cent above those of 200 years ago and emissions to the atmosphere have been rising by more than 2 per cent a year since 2000. This extra greenhouse gas stems overwhelmingly from humans burning fossil fuels and destroying forests, both of which contain carbon, which gets released as CO2 into the atmosphere. ...Read more...

We need to stay below 2°C

We are actually very close to tipping points in the world’s climate system.

Once a tipping point has been reached a feedback process takes over and it would be nearly impossible to slow it down.

Scientists believe that such tipping points could be for example the physical break up of landbound Greenland, the massive release of methane trapped in the permafrost, the die-back of the Amazon rainforest from heat, drought, and fires, the slowing down of the Northern Atlantic circulation etc. ...Read more...

But it’s not too late to act!

If we act now, if we address emissions now, we can avoid the worst case scenarios in the future.

The main goal for the world must be to cut down the emission of gas that pollutes the atmosphere and destroys the climate. ...Read more...

What will happen in Dec 09 in Copenhagen and why is it so important?

We need to agree how to fight climate change. Now. This year.

In December this year, Governments who have signed up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to agree on a new global climate deal aimed at protecting the future of our planet... Negotiations are already in full swing. ...Read more...

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