L. G. Meira Filho

This extensive report entitled “Climate Change 1995: The Science of Climate Change” is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment available for scientific understanding of human influences on the past present and future climate. Its aim is to provide objective information on which to base global climate change that will ultimately meet the aim of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The report includes an overview of the factors governing climate and climate change and quantification of the sources of globally important greenhouse gases and other pollutants arising from human activities. A review of the chemical and biological processes governing their removal from the atmosphere is presented. Also included is an assessment of recent trends in climate during the industrial era which has witnessed the ever-growing impact of human activities on the global environment. The strengths and weaknesses of various climate mathematical models used by researchers for understanding the past and present climate and for calculating possible future climates are assessed. Furthermore the report discusses research aimed at the detection of human influence on the climate of the last century and presents future change projections in global climate and sea level based on a range of scenarios of future emissions of pollutants due to human activity. Finally a list of research and observational priorities needed to improve scientific understanding in key areas is presented.

This volume, a companion to two other volumes produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) under the umbrella title `Climate change 1995`, enlarges and updates information contained in its 1990 assessment and also in the interim reports produced by WGI in 1992 and 1994. The assessment forms the standard scientific reference for all those concerned with climate change and its consequences. The report includes: an overview of the factors governing climate and climate change; quantification of the sources of the globally important greenhouse gases and other pollutants arising from human activities, and a review of the chemical and biological processes governing their removal from the atmosphere; analyses of data on climates of the distant past, and an assessment of recent trends in climate during the industrial era, which has witnessed the ever-growing impact of human activities on the global environment; assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the various mathematical models of climate used by today`s researchers for understanding past and present climate, and for calculating possible future climates; discussion of recent research aimed at the detection of a human influence on the climate of the last century; projections of possible future changes in global climate and sea-level, based on a range of scenarios of future emissions of pollutants from human activity; a list of research and observational priorities needed to further improve scientific understanding in key areas. 7 apps.

This chapter focuses on policy with regards to the consideration of the carbon in the terrestrial biosphere, particularly in forests and their soils, and climatic change.