query: Numerous papers have documented how IPCC predictions are more likely to underestimate the climate response.

positive: IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) .   The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established .   Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums  Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths  Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies   Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports .   The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes :   We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it .  We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ...  Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade .  There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets .  Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more .  under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .

positive: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP .  The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . ''   The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources .   Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries .   The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .

negative: Climate change acronyms The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) use tens of acronyms and initialisms in documents relating to climate change policy .

negative: Climate change adaptation in Nepal Climate change ( CC ) refers `` to the change of earth 's global or regional climate over a long period of time , whether due to natural variability or as the result of human activities '' IPCC , 2007d :30 . By the impact of climate change , as systems become more vulnerable to natural hazards , there is a greater need to develop responses ( that is , adjustments in existing practices , processes or structures ) that are able to counter potential future disasters . Such a response is known as adaptation to climate change IPCC , 2001b ; Smit et al. , 1999 . Community forest user group ( CFUG ) is main areas to act climate change adaptation in Nepa

negative: Kevin E. Trenberth Kevin Edward Trenberth ( born November 8 , 1944 ) is part of the Climate Analysis Section at the US NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research . He was a lead author of the 2001 and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change ( see IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ) and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability ( CLIVAR ) program . He chaired the WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel from 2004 to 2010 and chaired the Global Energy and Water Exchanges ( GEWEX ) scientific steering group from 2010-2013 ( member 2007-14 ) . In addition , he served on the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme , and has made significant contributions to research into El Niño-Southern Oscillation .   Kevin 's work is highly cited and he has an h-index of 100 ( 100 papers have over 100 citations ) .

negative: CLIVAR CLIVAR ( climate variability and predictability ) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme . Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales , identify the physical processes responsible for climate change and develop modeling and predictive capabilities for climate modelling .

negative: Centro de Previsão do Tempo e Estudos Climáticos Centro de Previsão do Tempo e Estudos Climáticos ( CPTEC ) is the numerical weather prediction agency of Brazil , part of INPE ( National Institute for Space Research ) . Its mission is to provide the country with weather and climate forecasts . CPTEC is the most advanced center for numerical weather prediction and climate in Latin America , providing forecasts for short and medium-term climate and high precision , since the beginning of 1995 . CPTEC uses supercomputers and knowledge of its staff to achieve the same level as forecasting centers in more developed countries .

negative: Climate Forecast System __ NOTOC __  The Climate Forecast System or Coupled Forecast System ( both names abbreviated CFS ) is a medium to long range numerical weather prediction and a climate model run by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) to bridge weather and climate timescales . Version 2 became operational as CFSv2 in 2011 .

negative: Planning fallacy The planning fallacy , first proposed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1979 , is a phenomenon in which predictions about how much time will be needed to complete a future task display an optimism bias and underestimate the time needed .   This phenomenon occurs regardless of the individual 's knowledge that past tasks of a similar nature have taken longer to complete than generally planned . The bias only affects predictions about one 's own tasks ; when outside observers predict task completion times , they show a pessimistic bias , overestimating the time needed . The planning fallacy requires that predictions of current tasks ' completion times are more optimistic than the beliefs about past completion times for similar projects and that predictions of the current tasks ' completion times are more optimistic than the actual time needed to complete the tasks . In 2003 , Lovallo and Kahneman proposed an expanded definition as the tendency to underestimate the time , costs , and risks of future actions and at the same time overestimate the benefits of the same actions . According to this definition , the planning fallacy results in not only time overruns , but also cost overruns and benefit shortfalls .

negative: Michael E. Mann Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) is an American climatologist and geophysicist , currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , who has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change based on the temperature record of the past thousand years . He has pioneered techniques to find patterns in past climate change , and to isolate climate signals from noisy data .   As lead author of a paper produced in 1998 with co-authors Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , Mann used advanced statistical techniques to find regional variations in a hemispherical climate reconstruction covering the past 600 years . In 1999 the same team used these techniques to produce a reconstruction over the past 1,000 years ( MBH99 ) which was dubbed the `` hockey stick graph '' because of its shape . He was one of eight lead authors of the `` Observed Climate Variability and Change '' chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Scientific Assessment Report published in 2001 . A graph based on the MBH99 paper was highlighted in several parts of the report , and was given wide publicity . The IPCC acknowledged that his work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore .   Mann was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards including selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 . In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society , and awarded the status of distinguished professor in Penn State 's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences .   Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications . He has also published three books : Dire Predictions : Understanding Global Warming ( 2008 ) , The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines ( 2012 ) , and , together with co-author Tom Toles , The Madhouse Effect : How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet , Destroying Our Politics , and Driving Us Crazy ( 2016 ) . In 2012 , the European Geosciences Union described his publication record as `` outstanding for a scientist of his relatively young age '' . Mann is also a co-founder and contributor to the climatology blog RealClimate .

negative: Hockey stick graph Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures .   The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science .   Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 .   In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 .   A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result .   More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .

negative: Climate change education (CCE) Climate Change Education ( CCE ) is learning geared toward helping people address and develop effective responses to climate change . It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change , prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles .   CCE helps policy-makers understand the urgency and importance of putting mechanisms into place to combat climate change on a national and global scale . Communities learn about how climate change will affect them , what they can do to protect themselves from negative consequences , and how they can reduce their own climate footprint . In particular , CCE helps increase the resilience of already vulnerable communities who are the most likely to be adversely affected by climate change .   CCE is rooted in Education for Sustainable Development ( ESD ) .

negative: Climate ensemble A climate ensemble involves slightly different models of the climate system . There are at least four different types , to be described below . For the equivalent in numerical weather prediction , see ensemble forecasting .

negative: United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology .   In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .

negative: Myles Allen Myles R. Allen is head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford 's Atmospheric , Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department . He is the Principal Investigator of the distributed computing project Climateprediction.net ( which makes use of computing resources provided voluntarily by the general public ) , and was principally responsible for starting this project . He is Professor of Geosystem Science in the School of Geography and the Environment , and a Fellow of Linacre College , Oxford .   He has worked at the Energy Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme , the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire , and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .   He contributed to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a Lead Author of the Chapter on detection of change and attribution of causes , and was a Review Editor for the chapter on predictions of global climate change for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . His research focuses on the attribution of recent climate change and assessing what these changes mean for global climate simulations of the future .   In 2010 , Allen was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for `` his important contributions to the detection and attribution of human influence on climate and quantifying uncertainty in climate predictions '' .   Allen also provided the technical expertise for the game Fate of the World , which is `` a PC strategy game that simulates the real social and environmental impact of global climate change over the next 200 years . ''

negative: Prediction of crystal properties by numerical simulation The prediction of crystal properties by numerical simulation has become commonplace in the last 20 years as computers have grown more powerful and theoretical techniques more sophisticated . High accuracy prediction of elastic , electronic , transport and phase properties is possible with modern methods .

negative: Anders Levermann Anders Levermann is a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University . He is a Professor of the Dynamics of the Climate System at Institute for Physics and Astrophysics of the Potsdam University , Germany . He was a lead author of the chapter on sea-level changes of the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC AR5 ) , and contributed to the paleoclimate chapter in the previous report ( IPCC-AR4 ) . Levermann advises political and economic stakeholders on the issue of climate change .

negative: List of authors of Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis This is a list of the 620 authors contributing to Climate Change 2007 : The Physical Science Basis , which was the 996 page contribution of Working Group I to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . Their report describes the causes and climate consequences of global warming .   This list is limited to people acknowledged as authors or editors on the report . The additional several hundred reviewers acknowledged in Annex III of the report are not included on this list . Author affiliations and nationalities are summarized from the list in Annex II of the report .   Each author may have contributed to one or more sections and had one or more roles during the writing process . In the table below abbreviations are used to denote the roles and sections :

negative: Patrick Michaels Patrick J. ( `` Pat '' ) Michaels ( born February 15 , 1950 ) is an American climatologist . Michaels is a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute . Until 2007 he was research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia , where he had worked from 1980 .   A self-described skeptic on the issue of global warming , he is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists . He has written a number of books and papers on climate change , including Sound and Fury : The Science and Politics of Global Warming ( 1992 ) , The Satanic Gases ( 2000 ) , and Meltdown : The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists , Politicians , and the Media ( 2004 ) . He 's also the co-author of Climate of Extremes : Global Warming Science They Do n't Want You to Know ( 2009 ) . Michaels ' viewpoint , as argued in a 2002 article in the journal Climate Research , is that the planet will see `` a warming range of 1.3 -- 3.0 ° C , with a central value of 1.9 ° C '' for the 1990 to 2100 period ( an analysis far smaller than the IPCC 's average predictions ) .

negative: Pseudoproxy A pseudoproxy is a synthetic dataset used in paleoclimatology to test methods of reconstruction of global or hemispherical climate change from temperature records , developed for reconstructing the temperature record of the past 1000 years using proxies for periods before the instrumental temperature record . In May 2002 Michael E. Mann and Scott Rutherford published a paper introducing this method of adding artificial noise to actual temperature records or to climate model simulations to produce what they called `` pseudoproxies '' . When the reconstruction algorithms were used with these pseudoproxies , the result was then compared with the original record or simulation to see how closely it had been reconstructed . They discussed the issue that regression methods of reconstruction tended to underestimate the amplitude of variation .

negative: Petr Chýlek Petr Chýlek is a researcher for Space and Remote Sensing Sciences at  Los Alamos National Laboratory . Prior to becoming a government researcher in 2001 , Chýlek was a Professor at several US and Canadian universities including SUNY Albany , Purdue University , University of Oklahoma and Dalhousie University in Halifax , Canada .   Chýlek has published over 100 first authored scientific papers in remote sensing , atmospheric radiation , climate change , cloud and aerosol physics , applied laser physics and ice core analysis . His work has been cited more than 4000 times . Chylek is best known for his work in remote sensing , aerosols and climate change .   In 2006 , Chýlek served as Chairman , Scientific Program Committee for The Second International Conference on Global Warming and the Next Ice Age held at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Santa Fe , NM . Speakers included Venkatachalam Ramaswamy , Chris Folland , Gerald North , Roger A. Pielke , William M. Gray and Jan Veizer . The conference included a two-day workshop on climate prediction uncertainties . The papers presented at the 2006 Conference were published in a special section of the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres in 2007 .   In 2007 , Chýlek and co-authors published a peer-reviewed paper estimating climate sensitivity to doubled atmospheric CO2 to be significantly less than the IPCC estimate .   Chýlek received his diploma in theoretical physics from Charles University in Prague , Czech Republic . He received his Ph.D. in physics from UC Riverside in 1970 .

negative: Climate gap The climate gap refers to a body of data indicating disparities in how climate change impacts various racial , ethnic and socioeconomic groups in the United States . The data show that low socioeconomic status groups and racial and ethnic minorities will experience more negative health and economic impacts from the results of climate change than other populations in the United States . This term , climate gap , was first used in the May 2009 report , `` The Climate Gap : Inequalities in How Climate Change Hurts Americans & How to Close the Gap '' , as well as in a concurrent paper published in the journal , Environmental Justice , by Seth B. Shonkoff , Rachel Morello-Frosch and colleagues entitled , `` Minding the Climate Gap : Implications of Environmental Health Inequities for Mitigation Policies in California '' .

negative: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) . He disagrees with predictions about future climate change , arguing that they ignore the most important factor , which is sun activity . In the summer of 2008 , he also predicted the world to soon enter a little ice age .   `` The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC `` are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include , for example , solar activity . '' -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera .

negative: Jean Palutikof Jean Palutikof is founding Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility ( NCCARF ) at Griffith University , Australia . She has held this position since 2008 . Prior to this , Professor Palutikof was based at the UK Met Office during which time she managed the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report for Working Group II ( Impacts , Adaptation and Vulnerability ) .   Professor Palutikof is among the foremost scholars of climate change adaptation and was lead author and review editor for several assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and was present in Oslo at the ceremony at which the IPCC received the Nobel Peace Prize .

negative: Vincent R. Gray __ NOTOC __   Vincent Richard Gray ( born 24 March 1922 ) is a New Zealand-based chemist , and a founder of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition .   Born in London on 24 March 1922 , Gray was awarded a PhD in physical chemistry by the University of Cambridge after studies on incendiary bomb fluids made from aluminium soaps . In New Zealand , he was the first Director of Building Research and later , Chief Chemist of the Coal Research Association .  He has also published many articles and reports , seven in peer-reviewed journals . After retirement , he had four and a half years in China and when he returned became a critic of the claim that climate was harmed by human emissions of greenhouse gases .   He has commented on every publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , with 1,898 comments on the 2007 Report . He has published critical studies on all of the reports including a book `` The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of ` Climate Change 2001 ' '' . He has published `` Confessions of a Climate Sceptic ''  He is sceptical of the anthropogenic global warming :  `` The two main `` scientific '' claims of the IPCC are the claim that `` the globe is warming '' and `` Increases in carbon dioxide emissions are responsible '' . Evidence for both of these claims is fatally flawed . ''   Gray has called for the IPCC to be abolished , claiming it is `` fundamentally corrupt '' due to his conclusion that for significant parts of the work of the IPCC , the data collection and scientific methods employed are unsound and that the IPCC resists all efforts to try to discuss or rectify these problems .   Gray was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Counterpoint in a debate entitled `` Nine Lies about Global Warming '' , and was interviewed in a featured story in the New Zealand Herald as a `` prominent '' global warming skeptic .   In 2002 , Gray also published a book , The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of `` Climate Change 2001 '' . In it , Gray argues `` that the quality and reliability of the IPCC 's measurements are poor , the system of determining how much weight should be attributed to different influences on the earth 's temperature is faulty , and the validity of evidence derived from computer modeling is questionable . ''

negative: Climate change and potatoes Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests .  Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .

negative: Climate change in Argentina According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .

negative: Jianping Li Dr. Jianping Li ( Chinese : 李建平 ) is a Professor of Meteorology at Institute of Atmospheric Physics ( IAP ) , Chinese Academy of Sciences ( CAS ) . He is also the Deputy Director of Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics ( LASG ) , IAP/CAS , an affiliated faculty of University of Hawaii , USA , a Fellow of Royal Meteorological Society ( RMetS ) , and a Lecture/Visiting Professor at Graduate University of CAS , Lanzhou University and Ocean University of China , and the Secretary-General of Chinese National Committee for IUGG .   He earned a BS , MS and PhD , respectively , in 1991 , 1994 and 1997 from Lanzhou University . He is interested in climatic dynamics and predictability , monsoon , annular modes and their impacts , etc. . He has published more than 140 scientific papers , some books , and has won numerous awards . He is the chief scientist of two National Basic Research projects ( 973AIPO and 973ALS ) of China . The 973AIPO focuses on ocean-atmosphere interaction over Asia ( AIPO ) and its impact on the short-term climate variation in China , and 973ALS on Air-land-sea ( ALS ) interactions in Asia and their role in the global change .   He serves on several academic committees such as Honours and Recognition Committee/International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics ( IUGG ) , International Commission on Climate ( ICCL ) , International Commission on Dynamical Meteorology ( ICDM ) , WWRP Monsoon Panel , Lead Author of IPCC WG II , Working Group for UN Environment Consultation ( WGUNEC ) , Chinese Association for Science and Technology ( CAST ) , International Commission on Planetary Atmospheres and their Evolution ( ICPAE ) , World Youth Earth Scientists ( YES ) , and on the responsible editor of Theoretical and Applied Climatology , Advances in Atmospheric Sciences and Chinese Journal of Atmospheric Sciences . Besides , he is the director of International Program Office of Asian Monsoon Years ( AMY 2007-2012 ) , and the co-coordinator of International Project of East Asian Climate ( EAC ) .

negative: Seita Emori Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the  Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 .   Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .

negative: David Wratt David Stuart Wratt QSO is the Chief Scientist ( Climate ) at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research ( NIWA ) and is responsible for NIWA 's National Climate Centre . He has a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury . He has worked in the USA and Australia as well as New Zealand . His expertise includes climate and meteorology , climate change science and impacts , mountain meteorology , and air quality .   He is a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand . He chairs the Climate Committee of the Royal Society of New Zealand . He is a member of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and he is a Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group 1 , which assesses the physical science of climate change .   He was a Coordinating Lead Author of the `` Australia and New Zealand '' chapter of the IPCC Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .   After gaining a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois , he worked for the New Zealand Meteorological Service . In 1992 he and other climate researchers transferred to NIWA .   Wratt has stated :   `` There 's a strong scientific case for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions . We need a combination of reducing our emissions in New Zealand and being part of international negotiations to reduce emissions globally in order to forestall the worst effects . ''   Wratt was made a Companion of the Queen 's Service Order in the 2012 New Year Honours , for services to science .

negative: Temperature record of the past 1000 years For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods .   Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models .   During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .

negative: Loss and damage The term Loss and damage denotes impacts of climate-related stressors that occur despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climatic changes . Loss and damage can result from sudden-onset events ( climate disasters , such as cyclones ) as well as slow-onset processes ( such as sea level rise ) . Loss and damage can occur in human systems ( such as livelihoods ) as well as natural systems ( such as biodiversity ) , though the emphasis in research and policy is on human impacts . Within the realm of loss and damage to human systems , a distinction is made between economic losses and non-economic losses . The main difference between the two is that non-economic losses involve things that are not commonly traded in markets .   At the 18th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2012 in Doha , Qatar , it took 36 hours of negotiation between 195 nations to arrive at a plan to address loss and damage associated with adverse effects of climate change particularly in countries most vulnerable to climate change . A new website was launched at the conference by the Loss and Damage Vulnerable Countries Initiative . It described its aim as being `` the first dedicated site for news , resources and opinion on the issue of loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change '' . Examples of types of loss and damage include farmers who can no longer grow crops to eat , or grass to feed cattle , because their soil has become too salty , and fishermen who have lost their livelihoods because rivers have dried up .   In popular press , and in statements by some parties in the climate negotiations , the terms loss and damage is often associated with liability and compensation . This explains why the topic raises heated debates , and tends to widen the divide between developed countries , which are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions , and developing countries that are more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . For vulnerable countries , loss and damage is most of all about recognizing that past and current efforts to avoid dangerous climate change , and that there are limits and constraints to adaptation .   The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has developed a work programme on loss and damage which aims to find ways to address the issue in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change . On 12 -- 14 September 2013 , it held a meeting in Fiji to consider how best to address loss and damage from ` slow-onset events ' . These are impacts of climate change that occur over time , such as sea-level rise , rather than in a single , destructive event . Bangladesh is already suffering from loss and damage resulting from sea-level rise , due to its flat terrain in the coastal region .   At the 19th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2013 in Warsaw , Poland , the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts was established . At the 20th Conference of the Parties in Lima , Peru ( 2014 ) , the work plan of the executive committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism was approved .   The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 2013-2014 had no separate chapter on loss and damage , but WG2 Chapter 16 about adaptation limits and constraints , is very relevant for people interested in loss and damage . A qualitative data analysis ( QDA ) of what the IPCC 5th Assessment Report has to say about loss and damage surprisingly showed that the term was used much more often in statements about Annex 1 countries ( e.g. US , Australia or European countries ) than in text about non-Annex 1 countries ( most countries in Africa , Asia Latin America and the Pacific ) , which tend to be more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . Whether or not the IPCC 6th Assessment Report will have a chapter on loss and damage has not yet been decided .

negative: Bert Metz Bert Metz ( born 15 August 1945 , The Hague ) is a Dutch climate policy expert . He was Co-chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Working Group III on mitigation on climate change for the third and fourth assessment report of the IPCC . Currently he is a fellow at the european climate foundation .   Metz obtained an Engineer 's degree in Chemical Engineering at Delft University of Technology and subsequently his Ph.D. degree at the same university . From 1976 to 1987 he worked for Dutch Ministry of Housing , Spatial Planning and Environment in the fields of air pollution , external safety , noise pollution , chemical waste and the enforcement of environmental laws . From 1987 until 1992 he was Counsellor for Health and Environment at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC . In 1992 he became Deputy Director for Air and Energy of the Netherlands Ministry of Housing , Spatial Planning and Environment , with responsibility for climate policy . He led the Netherlands delegation to the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Convention .   In 1997 he moved to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency at RIVM to head the group on climate change and global sustainability and was elected as co-chairman of the Working Group on Climate Change Mitigation of the IPCC for the preparation of the Third Assessment Report . In 2002 he was re-elected in that position for the 4th Assessment Report cycle .  Although formally retired , Bert Metz is still very active in the climate policy arena , among others as advisor for the European Climate Foundation and as steering group member of UNEP 's annual Emissions Gap Report . In 2008 he was named Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau . .

negative: National Centers for Environmental Prediction The United States National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) delivers national and global weather , water , climate and space weather guidance , forecasts , warnings and analyses to its Partners and External User Communities . These products and services are based on a service-science legacy and respond to user needs to protect life and property , enhance that nation 's economy and support the nation 's growing need for environmental information . The centers form part of the National Weather Service .   There are nine centers :   Aviation Weather Center provides aviation warnings and forecasts of hazardous flight conditions at all levels within domestic and international air space .  Climate Prediction Center monitors and forecasts short-term climate fluctuations and provides information on the effects climate patterns can have on the nation .  Environmental Modeling Center develops and improves numerical weather , climate , hydrological and ocean prediction through a broad program in partnership with the research community .  National Hurricane Center provides forecasts of the movement and strength of tropical weather systems and issues watches and warnings for the North Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific Ocean .  NCEP Central Operations sustains and executes the operational suite of numerical analyses and forecast models and prepares NCEP products for dissemination .  Ocean Prediction Center issues weather warnings and forecasts out to five days for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of 30 degrees North .  Space Weather Prediction Center provides space weather alerts and warnings for disturbances that can affect people and equipment working in space and on earth .  Storm Prediction Center provides tornado and severe weather watches for the contiguous United States along with a suite of hazardous weather forecasts .  Weather Prediction Center provides nationwide analysis and forecast guidance products out through seven days .


query: CO2 emissions were much smaller 100 years ago.

positive: Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect .   Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture .   It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .

positive: Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years .   In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing .   Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years .   Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) ,  whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change .   Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .

negative: Carbon price Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' .   Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain .   The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions .   The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .

negative: Methane emissions Global methane emissions are major part of the global greenhouse gas emissions . Methane in the atmosphere has a 100-year global warming potential of 34 .

negative: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 .   At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .

negative: Chicago Climate Exchange The Chicago Climate Exchange ( CCX ) was North America 's only voluntary , legally binding greenhouse gas ( GHG ) reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil .   CCX employed independent verification , included six greenhouse gases , and traded greenhouse gas emission allowances from 2003 to 2010 . The companies joining the exchange committed to reducing their aggregate emissions by 6 % by 2010 . CCX had an aggregate baseline of 680 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent .   CCX ceased trading carbon credits at the end of 2010 due to inactivity in the U.S. carbon markets , although carbon exchanges were intended to still be facilitated .

negative: CERINA-Plan CERINA Plan is the abbreviation for `` CO2 Emissions and Renewable Investment Action Plan '' . It is a CO2 reduction concept developed by the German renewable energy institute IWR . The CERINA Plan proposes a technical investment approach linking a country 's CO2 emissions to its investment in renewable energy technology . Therefore , it is an alternative model to approaches like the Kyoto idea of mere cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . The model is meant to be flexible and to adapt to the special national circumstances of each country .

negative: Project Vulcan Project Vulcan is a NASA/DOE funded effort under the North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions at space/time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past . The initial purpose of the Vulcan Project was to aid in quantification of the North American carbon budget , to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks , and to support the demands posed by higher resolution CO2 observations . The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory has now made it a valuable tool for policymakers , demographers , social scientists and the public at large .   Project Vulcan has achieved U.S. fossil fuel CO2 emissions at < 10 km spatial scales and an hourly time scale , based on datasets such as air quality emissions reporting , census data , highway statistics , energy statistics , and econometric data . Furthermore , Vulcan includes significant process-level detail , dividing the emissions into economic sectors and sub-sectors in addition to 23 fuel types . It has been produced for the year 2002 , and an annual product spanning 1980-2006 will be available by late-2009 .   The first Vulcan inventory ( v1 .0 ) was released to the public in early April 2008 . Version 1.1 was released in February 2009 and Version 1.2 is due out in early August 2009 . In addition to the data release , establishment of the Vulcan website and a press release , a video of various aspects of atmospheric transport was released on Purdue University 's YouTube website and portions of the Vulcan inventory are available on Google Earth . As of 2015 , version 2.2 has been published on a site hosted by Arizona State University .

negative: German response to Kyoto Protocol Germany is Europe 's largest and the world 's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 . In July 2007 , Germany had the largest European population , with 82.4 million people . Germany imports most of its materials and energy sources , and in 2004 imported 2.135 million barrels of oil and 85.02 billion m ³ ( 2003 ) of natural gas a day . In 2004 , Germany emitted 886 million metric tonnes of CO2 . In 2004 , there were approximately 45 million registered cars in Germany .   Between March 1998 and March 1999 , 84 countries including Germany signed the Kyoto Protocol . In March 2002 , the Bundestag unanimously ratified Kyoto . In May 2002 , the European Union submitted the articles of ratification for all 15 of its then member states .   As an Annex II nation , Germany 's commitment to the UNFCCC with respect to Kyoto was to reduce emissions as well as to provide an economic crutch to developing nations via Clean Development Mechanisms .   In November 2006 , Germany 's planned annual quota was 482 million metric tonnes of CO2 . German Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced by 17.2 % from 1990 to 2004 , according to UNFCCC . Germany actively promotes government carbon funds and supports multilateral carbon funds that are intent on purchasing Carbon Credits from non-Annex I parties . Government organizations work closely with major utility , energy , oil and gas , and chemicals conglomerates to try to acquire as many Greenhouse Gas Certificates as cheaply as possible .   Since signing and ratifying the protocol , Germany has committed to reducing its emissions to 21 % below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 . In November 2008 , a study found that Germany had already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4 % , which means it already reached its Kyoto Emissions Commitments .

negative: ACEA agreement The ACEA agreement refers to a voluntary agreement between the European Automobile Manufacturers Association ( ACEA ) and the European Commission to limit the amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emitted by passenger cars sold in Europe . With 18 million cars sold each year , Europe is the last major car market in the world .   Signed in 1998 , the agreement sought to achieve an average of 140 g/km of CO2 by 2008 for new passenger vehicles sold by the association 's cars in Europe . This target represents a 25 % reduction from the 1995 level of 186 g/km and is equivalent to a fuel economy of 5.8 L/100 km or 5.25 L/100 km for petrol and diesel engines respectively . However , the average for the whole car market for 2008 was 153.7 g/km , so the target has not been achieved .   Besides the agreement with ACEA , the European Commission also closed agreements with the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association ( JAMA ) and Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association ( KAMA ) . However , for the latter two the target date is 2009 instead of 2008 and as ACEA accounts for 86.4 % of car sales in Europe , the impact of the latter two is much smaller .   The ultimate EU target to which these agreements are to contribute , is to reach an average CO2 emission ( as measured according to Commission Directive 93/116/EC ) of 130 g/km for all new passenger cars by 2015 .   The European Commission announced in late 2006 that it is working on a proposal for legally binding measures and limits .   In February 2007 , the Commission acknowledged the failure of the voluntary agreement . Following this , a proposal of regulation was introduced by the Commission on 19 December 2007 .

negative: Clarias maclareni Clarias maclareni is a critically endangered species of catfish in the Clariidae family . It is endemic to Lake Barombi Mbo in western Cameroon . It is threatened because of pollution and sedimentation due to human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) . It is known to grow to 36 cm TL . Large individuals feed mainly on other fishes ( especially cichlids ) , while smaller mainly feed on insects .

negative: Fuel factor The fuel factor , fo , is the ratio of created CO2 to depleted oxygen in a combustion reaction , used to check the accuracy of an emission measurement system . It can be calculated using the equation   fo = ( 20.9 - % O2 ) / % CO2 ,   Where % O2 is the percent O2 by volume , dry basis , % CO2 is the percent CO2 by volume , dry basis , and 20.9 is the percent O2 by volume in ambient air . The Fuel factor can be corrected for the amount of CO , by adding the percent CO on a dry basis to the CO2 , and subtracting half of the percent CO from the O2 .

negative: Baptistina family The Baptistina family is an asteroid family that was probably produced by the breakup of an asteroid 170 km across 80 million years ago following an impact with a smaller body . The two largest presumed remnants of the parent asteroid are main-belt asteroids 298 Baptistina and 1696 Nurmela .   The Baptistina family may consist of uncommon carbonaceous chondrite asteroids and meteoroids in similar orbits . Many mountain-sized fragments from the collision would have leaked into the inner solar system through orbital resonances with Mars and Jupiter , causing a prolonged series of asteroid impacts . Previously this collision was believed to have occurred about 160 million years ago , and many impacts between 100 and 50 million years ago were attributed to it . However , new data in 2011 from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer revised the date of the proposed collision which broke up the parent asteroid to about 80 million years ago .

negative: EU Allowances EU Allowances are Climate credits ( or Carbon credits ) used in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) . EU Allowances are issued by the EU Member States into Member State Registry accounts . By April 30 of each year , operators of installations covered by the EU ETS must surrender an EU Allowance for each ton of CO2 emitted in the previous year .   Category : Carbon emissions in the European Union

negative: Volkswagen New Compact Coupé The VW New Compact Coupé ( short VW NCC ) is a close-to-production concept car of the German car manufacturer Volkswagen . The car was presented on the NAIAS 2010 in Detroit . It is equipped with a hybrid-drive and is positioned between the VW Scirocco and the VW Passat CC . The average fuel consumption is just 4.2 liters per 100 kilometers ; the emission value is 98 grams of CO2 per kilometer . In contrast , the driving values are a top speed of 227 km/h and a sprint time of 8.6 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h .

negative: Carbon neutrality Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel .   The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article .   The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways :  Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) .  Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some .   The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .

negative: Sustainable Silicon Valley Sustainable Silicon Valley ( SSV ) is a collaboration of businesses , governments , and non-governmental organizations that are identifying and addressing environmental and resource pressures in Silicon Valley . As its first initiative , SSV engaged Valley organizations , who are the SSV Partners , to work towards a goal of reducing regional carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions 20 % below 1990 levels by 2010 . The SSV approach to reaching this goal is to facilitate strategies to reduce CO2 emissions through increased energy and fuel efficiency and through the use of renewable sources of energy .

negative: Carbon respiration Carbon respiration ( also called carbon emissions and carbon releases ) is used in combination with carbon fixation to gauge carbon flux ( as CO2 ) between atmospheric carbon and the global carbon cycle .

negative: ECOnetic ECOnetic is a tradename for certain car models produced by Ford of Europe , currently consisting of one model in each of the Fiesta , the Focus and the Mondeo range , with an emphasis on higher fuel efficiency and low-CO2 emissions .

negative: Energy policy of China The energy policy of China is a policy decided on by the Central Government with regard to energy and energy resources . Ensuring adequate energy supply to sustain economic growth has been a core concern of the Chinese government since 1949 . The country is currently the world 's largest emitter of greenhouse gases according to a Dutch research agency . However , China 's per capita emissions are still far behind the developed countries . In addition , China is the world 's leading renewable energy producer .   From 2010 to 2015 China reduced energy consumption per unit of GDP by 18 % , and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 20 % .   Primary energy use in China was 26,250 TWh and 20 TWh per million persons in 2009 . According to IEA the primary energy use grew 40 % and electricity use 70 % from 2004 to 2009 . The energy import was three times bigger in 2009 compared to 2004 . The share of energy import of the primary energy use was 12 % in 2009 . The CO2 emissions growth in five years ( 2004-2009 ) was 44 % .

negative: European Union Emission Trading Scheme The European Union Emissions Trading System ( EU ETS ) , also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme , was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world , and remains the biggest . It was launched in 2005 to fight Global warming and is a major pillar of EU climate policy . As of 2013 , the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories , power stations , and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries -- all 28 EU member states plus Iceland , Norway , and Liechtenstein . In 2008 , the installations regulated by the EU ETS were collectively responsible for close to half of the EU 's anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and 40 % of its total greenhouse gas emissions .   Under the ` cap and trade ' principle , a maximum ( cap ) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by all participating installations . ` Allowances ' for emissions are then auctioned off or allocated for free , and can subsequently be traded . Installations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions , ensuring they hand in enough allowances to the authorities to cover their emissions . If emission exceeds what is permitted by its allowances , an installation must purchase allowances from others . Conversely , if an installation has performed well at reducing its emissions , it can sell its leftover credits . This allows the system to find the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions without significant government intervention .   The scheme has been divided into a number of `` trading periods '' . The first ETS trading period lasted three years , from January 2005 to December 2007 . The second trading period ran from January 2008 until December 2012 , coinciding with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol . The third trading period began in January 2013 and will span until December 2020 . Compared to 2005 , when the EU ETS was first implemented , the proposed caps for 2020 represents a 21 % reduction of greenhouse gases . This target has been reached 6 years early as emissions in the ETS fell to 1812 mln tonnes in 2014 .   The EU ETS has seen a number of significant changes , with the first trading period described as a ` learning by doing ' phase .  Phase III sees a turn to auctioning a majority of permits rather than allocating freely ; harmonisation of rules for the remaining allocations ; and the inclusion of other greenhouse gases , such as nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons . In 2012 , the EU ETS was also extended to the airline industry , though this has been paused for one year given the possibility of a global system for these emissions . The price of EU ETS carbon credits has been lower than intended , with a large surplus of allowances , in part because of the impact of the recent economic crisis on demand . In 2012 , the Commission said it would delay the auctioning of some allowances . Currently legislation is under way which would introduce a Market Stability Reserve to the EU ETS that adjusts the annual supply of CO2 permits based on the CO2 permits in circulation .   Overall , since its conception , the EU ETS has been characterized by relatively high levels of policy uncertainty . This uncertainty has been both technical , in terms of its detailed rules and procedures , and political , in terms of its public , industry , and governmental support . As a result , the scheme has resulted in a rather informal and tepid response by regulated organizations .

negative: Liaoceratops Liaoceratops , meaning `` Liao Horned Face '' , is a ceratopsian dinosaur believed to be an early relative of the horned ceratopsids . It lived in the early Cretaceous , some 130 million years ago . It was discovered in China by a team of American and Chinese scientists . Liaoceratops was much smaller than its later relatives , but offers a glimpse into the early evolution of this group of dinosaurs .

negative: Carbon profiling Carbon profiling is a mathematical process that calculates how much carbon dioxide is put into the atmosphere per m2 of space in a building over one year .   The analysis is in two parts which are then added together to produce an overall figure which is termed the ` Carbon Profile ' :  operational carbon emissions  embodied carbon emissions .   Embodied carbon emissions relate to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from creating and maintaining the materials that form the building e.g. the carbon dioxide released from the baking of bricks or smelting or iron . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured as Embodied Carbon Efficiency ( ECE ) , measured as kg of CO2/m2/year .   Occupational Carbon Emissions relate to the amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from the direct use of energy to run the building e.g. the heating or electricity used by the building over the year . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured in BER 's ( Building Emission Rate ) in kg of / m2/year .   The BER is a United Kingdom government accepted unit of measurement that comes from an approved calculation process called sBEM ( Simplified Building Emission Model )   The purpose of Carbon Profiling is to provide a method of analyzing and comparing both operational and embodied carbon emissions at the same time . With this information it is then possible to allocate a projects resources in such a way to minimize the total amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere through the use of a given piece of space .   A secondary benefit is that having quantified the Carbon Profiling of different buildings it is then possible to make comparisons and rank buildings in term of their performance . This allows investors and occupiers to identify which building are good and bad carbon investments .   Simon Sturgis and Gareth Roberts of Sturgis Associates in the United Kingdom originally developed ` Carbon Profiling ' in December 2007 .

negative: RechargeIT RechargeIT is one of five initiatives within Google.org , the charitable arm of Google , created with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions , cut oil use , and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles .

negative: Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project The Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project captures and stores underground one million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year . The capture unit is located at the Scotford Upgrader in Alberta , Canada , where hydrogen is produced to upgrade bitumen from oil sands into synthetic crude oil .

negative: Bison occidentalis Bison occidentalis is an extinct species of bison that lived in North America from about 11,000 to 5,000 years ago , spanning the end of the Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene . Likely evolving from Bison antiquus , B. occidentalis was smaller overall from its ancestor and other species such as the steppe bison . B. occidentalis had a highly variable morphology , and their horns , which pointed rearward , were much thinner and pointed than Pleistocene species of bison . Around 5,000 years ago , B. occidentalis was replaced by today 's smaller Bison bison .   B. occidentalis may have declined in numbers because of competition with other grass eaters of the megafauna epoch . More recently ancient DNA studies have proven interbreeding between B. occidentalis and ancestral modern bisons , so B. occidentalis was proposed to have been a localized offshoot of B. antiquus and part of the transition from that chronospecies to modern bisons .

negative: Carbon dioxide generator A Carbon dioxide generator or CO2 generator is a machine used to enhance carbon dioxide levels in order to promote plant growth in greenhouses or other enclosed areas . Carbon dioxide generators have been used to help grow marijuana . They can be fueled with propane or natural gas . CO2 generators were used mostly by commercial growers until smaller and less expansive systems made the technology more widely available to hobbyists . The generators also give off heat . Using compressed CO2 is an alternative to generators .

negative: Sustainable automotive air conditioning Sustainable automotive air conditioning is the subject of a debate -- nicknamed the Cool War -- about the next-generation refrigerant in car air conditioning . The Alliance for CO2 Solutions supports the uptake of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a refrigerant in passenger cars , and the chemical industry is developing new chemical blends .   The Alliance and its supporters -- scientists , NGOs and business leaders -- urge the car industry to replace high global warming chemical substances with the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide ( CO2 , R744 / R-744 ) in car cooling and heating . This , they argue , would lead to 10 % less car emissions , and knock out 1 % of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide . If CO2 Technology is applied in other sectors , such as commercial and industrial refrigeration , heat pumps for water heating etc. , it may even save up to 3 % of the world 's greenhouse gases .   Opponents of the Alliance claim that CO2 Technology is not cost-efficient and safe , hence seeking to postpone the global industry decision to be taken to develop new chemical blends instead .

negative: Glacial River Warren Glacial River Warren or River Warren was a prehistoric river that drained Lake Agassiz in central North America between 11,700 and 9,400 years ago . The enormous outflow from this lake carved a mighty valley now occupied by the much smaller Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi River . A part of the uppermost portion of the river channel was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1966 .

negative: Arthroleptis bivittatus Arthroleptis bivittatus is a species of frog in the Arthroleptidae family . It is endemic to Guinea and only known from the holotype collected from Tombo Island . Not much is known about the species that has not been observed after it was described more than 100 years ago . It is assumed to inhabit lowland forest .

negative: Forestle Forestle was an ecologically inspired search engine created by Christian Kroll , Wittenberg , Germany , in 2008 and discontinued in 2011 . Forestle supported rainforest conservation through donations of ad revenue and aimed to reduce CO2 emissions . It was briefly associated with Google before associating with Yahoo .

negative: Climate change in the United Kingdom Climate change in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protests and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . The UK Government has a commitment to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by 80 % on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 50 % on 1990 levels by 2050 .

negative: North American Carbon Program The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program .  The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions .   The specific program goals are as followed :   Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins .   Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 .   Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends .   The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .

negative: Sustainable tourism Sustainable tourism is the concept of visiting a place as a tourist and trying to make only a positive impact on the environment , society and economy . Tourism can involve primary transportation to the general location , local transportation , accommodations , entertainment , recreation , nourishment and shopping . It can be related to travel for leisure , business and what is called VFR ( visiting friends and relatives ) . There is now broad consensus that tourism development should be sustainable ; however , the question of how to achieve this remains an object of debate .   Without travel there is no tourism , so the concept of sustainable tourism is tightly linked to a concept of sustainable mobility . Two relevant considerations are tourism 's reliance on fossil fuels and tourism 's effect on climate change . 72 percent of tourism 's CO2 emissions come from transportation , 24 percent from accommodations , and 4 percent from local activities . Aviation accounts for 55 % of those transportation CO2 emissions ( or 40 % of tourism 's total ) . However , when considering the impact of all greenhouse gas emissions from tourism and that aviation emissions are made at high altitude where their effect on climate is amplified , aviation alone accounts for 75 % of tourism 's climate impact .   The International Air Transport Association ( IATA ) considers an annual increase in aviation fuel efficiency of 2 percent per year through 2050 to be realistic . However , both Airbus and Boeing expect the passenger-kilometers of air transport to increase by about 5 percent yearly through at least 2020 , overwhelming any efficiency gains . By 2050 , with other economic sectors having greatly reduced their CO2 emissions , tourism is likely to be generating 40 percent of global carbon emissions . The main cause is an increase in the average distance travelled by tourists , which for many years has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of trips taken . `` Sustainable transportation is now established as the critical issue confronting a global tourism industry that is palpably unsustainable , and aviation lies at the heart of this issue ( Gossling et al. , 2010 ) . ''