Elisabeth Rosenthal

Valencia (Spain): In its final and most powerful report, a UN panel of scientists meeting here describes the mounting risks of climate change in language that is both more specific and forceful than its previous assessments.

Synthesizing reams of data from its three previous reports, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the first time specifically points out important risks if governments fail to respond: melting ice sheets that could lead to a rapid rise in sea levels and the extinction of large numbers of species brought about by even moderate amounts of warming, on the order of 1 to 3 degrees.

The report carries significance because it is the last word from the influential climate panel before world leaders meet in Bali, Indonesia, next month to begin to discuss a global climate change treaty that will replace the Kyoto protocol, expiring in 2012.  

It is also the first report from the panel since it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October - an honour that scientists here said emboldened them to stand more forcefully behind their positions.

“This document goes further than any of the previous efforts,” said Hans Verolme, director of the World Wildlife Fund’s Global Climate Change Program. “The pressure has been palpable - people know they are delivering a document that will be cited for years to come and will define policy.”

The previous three sections, released between February and April, focused on one issue at a time: the first on science, the second on how the world could adapt to warming and the third about how countries could cut greenhouse gases.

This fourth and final assessment - the so-called synthesis report - seeks to combine lessons from all three. Its conclusions are culled from data contained in the thousands of pages that were essentially technical supplements to the panel’s previous publications. How that data is summarized and presented to the world is a powerful guide to what the scientists consider of utmost importance at the end of a five-year process, offering concrete guidelines for policy makers.

Source : DNAIndia