Press Releases

Walker Institute scientists ready to comment on the publication of the IPCC Synthesis report

Release Date : 20 November 2007

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today (Saturday November 17) publishes its Synthesis Report, which pulls together all aspects of the 4th Assessment Report on climate change through impacts, adaptation and mitigation.

The report - which included contributions from various Walker Institute scientists - concludes that climate change is set to get worse over the 21st century and current commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will have little effect.

The reports confirms that human actions are warming the climate and the impacts are already being felt across the world – spring is occurring earlier, coasts are being eroded by higher sea level and people's health is being affected by summer heatwaves.

Professor Nigel Arnell (contact details below), Director of the Walker Institute at the University of Reading and an author of the IPCC Impacts Report that appeared earlier in the year, said:

"This latest report confirms climate change as a real threat to economies and societies across the world, but more research is needed to help inform climate and adaptation policy.

"The Walker Institute, with its world-class expertise in climate, is well-placed to deliver this research and is already working on a number of key projects which address the gaps identified in the IPCC's report."

The report provides key scientific information to inform the negotiations in Bali in December where governments from around the world will try to agree actions needed beyond 2012 to combat the effects of climate change.

It shows how adaptation can reduce some of the inevitable impacts of climate change. Adapting buildings, flood defences and agriculture, for example, will be increasingly necessary over the next few decades before policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions begin to take affect.

Professor Arnell added: "The report reveals a number of big gaps in our understanding of climate change. Very few studies have identified clearly the impacts that would be avoided across the globe by different climate policies. Projections of climate change at the local scale remain uncertain, over both the medium and the long term, and this makes it difficult to design and implement adaptation policies.

"Knowing in detail how rainfall and extreme events like storms might change in the future remain particularly difficult, and potential changes in damaging weather events, such as extreme floods and tropical cyclones, remain highly uncertain."

Prof Nigel Arnell is available today for comment on: 07912 774978.

Prof Arnell is Director of the Walker Institute for Climate System Research at the University of Reading and is an expert on the impacts of climate on the world's water resources.

Several other Walker Institute scientists were involved in the IPCC process:

Prof Keith Shine's expertise is in the warming effect of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere, including new industrial chemicals.

Sir Brian Hoskins is a world authority on the climate system, particularly storms. Sir Brian has also made major contributions in communicating the science of climate change to policymakers and other audiences.

Prof Jonathan Gregory has made vital contributions to our understanding of sea level rise and the melting of ice sheets. This is an area that is causing some controversy as some consider the IPCC assessments of sea level rise too conservative in the light of rapid melting around the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets in recent years.

Prof Julia Slingo heads the National Centre for Atmospheric Science Climate Programme, a team which has world leading expertise in understanding, modelling and predicting climate change. Prof Slingo's particular expertise is in the Indian monsoon, El Niño and other aspects of tropical climate.

Prof Tony Slingo and Dr Richard Allan from the Environmental Systems Science Centre (ESSC) have expertise on forcing and feedbacks within the climate system.

Dr Tim Wheeler, from the University's Department of Agriculture, has made contributions on the impacts of climate on agriculture and food security.

Notes to editors:

Prof Nigel Arnell is available for comment on 07912 774978 or 0118 378 7392.

For more information contact Kathy Maskell, Walker Institute Communications Manager: tel: 0118 378 7380, email k.maskell@reading.ac.uk.