MEPs debate scale of climate change threat

2384, 11/09/07

The 2003 European heat wave in which 35,000 people died could become the norm by 2040 unless decisive action is taken to limit global warming, experts told MEPs in the European parliament's special committee on climate change on Monday.

 In the first of six planned meetings on different climate change themes, experts were invited to give their assessment of the potential impacts of different levels of global warming (EED 08/06/07 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/23365).

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, chief climate advisor to German chancellor Angela Merkel, warned that "unbridled global warming" could lead to the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, a significant rise in sea levels and serious droughts in Southern Europe.  He called for an industrial revolution to "decarbonise our society".

In contrast, Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts institute of technology argued that the "long chains of inference" behind predictions of catastrophic global warming rendered them "grossly unlikely".  Given natural climate variability, it would be impossible to assess the effectiveness of mitigation policies, he said.

The head of the World meteorological organisation, Michel Jarraud, argued that observation networks and climate indicators must be strengthened to allow experts to measure the impact and cost effectiveness of mitigation strategies.  "We need to create links between climate scientists and economists", he added.

Italian liberal MEP Vittorio Prodi, who coordinated the debate, said the committee will propose a number of measures to guide the work of all the parliament's committees on climate change.  The next debate is scheduled for 4 October and will tackle the post-2012 international climate change framework.

Follow-up: Committee on climate change http://www.europarl.europa.eu/comparl/tempcom/clim/default_en.htm

plus meeting documents http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/organes/clim/clim_20070910_1500.htm

and press release

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/064-10228-253-09-37-911-20070910IPR10201-10-09-2007-2007-false/default_en.htm.