Publication

How much warming is likely to occur over the next century? More importantly, how much can the Earth system tolerate before critical thresholds are crossed and widespread, abrupt and/or irreversible consequences affect the global climate, environment, and human societies? A number of international assessments point to a threshold for ‘dangerous’ climate change of approximately 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures. Given historical warming, the current commitment to future warming as well as future growth in greenhouse gas emissions, remaining below such a threshold will necessitate global greenhouse gas emissions reductions on the order of 30-55% below 1990 levels. Under proposed burden sharing schemes, reductions for developed nations would likely be significantly higher. This is one component of the climate challenge facing human society. The other component is how the global environment – its oceans, rivers, forests and biodiversity – and human society will cope with the consequences of climate change. The implications of climate change will very significantly from one region of

the world to another, but as this report demonstrates, the Asia/Pacific region is likely to

experience significant adverse consequences