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. 2009 Mar 17;106(11):4133-7.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0812355106. Epub 2009 Feb 26.

Assessing dangerous climate change through an update of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "reasons for concern"

Joel B Smith  1 , Stephen H Schneider, Michael Oppenheimer, Gary W Yohe, William Hare, Michael D Mastrandrea, Anand Patwardhan, Ian Burton, Jan Corfee-Morlot, Chris H D Magadza, Hans-Martin Füssel, A Barrie Pittock, Atiq Rahman, Avelino Suarez, Jean-Pascal van Ypersele
Affiliations

Assessing dangerous climate change through an update of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "reasons for concern"

Joel B Smith et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [United Nations (1992) http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf. Accessed February 9, 2009] commits signatory nations to stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that "would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference (DAI) with the climate system." In an effort to provide some insight into impacts of climate change that might be considered DAI, authors of the Third Assessment Report (TAR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified 5 "reasons for concern" (RFCs). Relationships between various impacts reflected in each RFC and increases in global mean temperature (GMT) were portrayed in what has come to be called the "burning embers diagram." In presenting the "embers" in the TAR, IPCC authors did not assess whether any single RFC was more important than any other; nor did they conclude what level of impacts or what atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases would constitute DAI, a value judgment that would be policy prescriptive. Here, we describe revisions of the sensitivities of the RFCs to increases in GMT and a more thorough understanding of the concept of vulnerability that has evolved over the past 8 years. This is based on our expert judgment about new findings in the growing literature since the publication of the TAR in 2001, including literature that was assessed in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), as well as additional research published since AR4. Compared with results reported in the TAR, smaller increases in GMT are now estimated to lead to significant or substantial consequences in the framework of the 5 "reasons for concern."

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Risks from climate change, by reason for concern—2001 compared with updated data. Climate change consequences are plotted against increases in global mean temperature (°C) after 1990. Each column corresponds to a specific RFC and represents additional outcomes associated with increasing global mean temperature. The color scheme represents progressively increasing levels of risk and should not be interpreted as representing “dangerous anthropogenic interference,” which is a value judgment. The historical period 1900 to 2000 warmed by ≈0.6 °C and led to some impacts. It should be noted that this figure addresses only how risks change as global mean temperature increases, not how risks might change at different rates of warming. Furthermore, it does not address when impacts might be realized, nor does it account for the effects of different development pathways on vulnerability. (A) RFCs from the IPCC TAR as described in section 1. (B) Updated RFCs derived from IPCC AR4 as supported by the discussion in section 2. (Reproduced with permission from Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Figure SPM-2. Cambridge University Press.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Defining dangerous anthropogenic interference.
    Mann ME. Mann ME. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Mar 17;106(11):4065-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0901303106. Epub 2009 Mar 10. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009. PMID: 19276105 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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