Global warming
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Abstract
There is no doubt that the single most important event of the last 12 months for bringing together the science and politics of global climate change was the Third Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). Alternatively reported as the World Climate Summit or the Kyoto Climate Conference, this 10-day negotiating meeting was held between 1 and 10 December 1997 in the Japanese city of Kyoto. The conference commenced the week after it had been announced that 1997 was going to be the warmest year yet recorded for global-mean surface air temperature, providing a convenient additional impetus for the climate negotiaters to agree a protocol. The outcome of Kyoto, however, had little to do with the realities of climate science, but everything to do with the realities of international diplomacy. This progress report on global warming will focus on these two (related) aspects of the debate: the outcome of the Kyoto conference and its significance for future global climate change, and the current state of the global climate system, in particular the surface air temperature record and its interpretation. I will also consider recent work that has a bearing on just how significant current and future global climate warming may be for the planet and for the life which inhabits it.