This week in Paris, the International Panel on Climate Change, the climate change experts working for the United Nations, will release the first part of their fourth report.
The new evaluation report will normally show an acceleration in the climate change process as extreme phenomena have been witnessed from the United States to China, as well in Europe. Here is just an example : in several countries, including the United Kingdom and China, 2006 was the hottest year since 1950.
These phenomena seem to bring mass awareness to people. As an example, in France, 49 percent of people think that climate change is the stake of the century. (poll done by CSA – Le Parisien)
At the end of the week, on Friday, the IPCC experts will release their new version of the “Summary for Policymakers”, the main document used by governments and administration worldwide when climate questions are discussed.
This document is the short version of the 900-pages document that is considered as the reference when it comes to climate. This new version will show an aggravation in the climatic situation and the 1.000 scientists who wrote this report hope that it will bring administrations to act more quickly and in a more important way.
According to Hervé Le Treut, director of the Laboratoire de météorologie dynamique (Laboratory for Dynamic Meteorology) and specialist of climate in France, quoted in today’s Le Figaro edition (page12), “We saw the predictions of previous reports come to reality. This one will confirm and precise them.”
It is interesting to mention that the second IPCC report in 1995 was used to prepare the Kyoto Protocol. As the fourth report will most likely show an important aggravation in the witnessed phenomena, it is to be hoped that Governments worldwide will go much further and much quicker that was is expected from the Kyoto Protocol.
To finish today’s article, I would like to tell you that the US President, George W Bush, is becoming aware of this situation. It will be the subject of my next article, that you will be able to read here at the latest on Wednesday.