UN downgrades man's impact on the climate

Mankind has had less effect on global warming than previously supposed, a United Nations report on climate change will claim next year.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there can be little doubt that humans are responsible for warming the planet, but the organisation has reduced its overall estimate of this effect by 25 per cent.

In a final draft of its fourth assessment report, to be published in February, the panel reports that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has accelerated in the past five years. It also predicts that temperatures will rise by up to 4.5 C during the next 100 years, bringing more frequent heat waves and storms.

The panel, however, has lowered predictions of how much sea levels will rise in comparison with its last report in 2001. This report isn't saying that we aren't affecting the climate- we still are, to a drastic degree, it's just that not all of it is due to mankind's interference. The report still warns of a bleak future if greenhouse gas emissions aren't drastically reduced. These effects may been seen to a high degree as soon as 2030-2050, when scientists think that the oceans will no longer be able to absorb all the carbon dioxide that is being/has been emitted. So this report is good news to a certain degree- but it is no reason to write off global warming or to celebrate anything too soon.