What to do about this climate change business...

Part three of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has now been released, which has focused on mitigating climate change - that is, what we can do to limit temperature increases to 2C by 2100, and how much it will cost to do so.

This report has been greeted euphorically with little hint that attempts at watering-down its content had worked, reflecting a startling degree of consensus over both science and economics. In its reading, average global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak by 2015 and start coming down immediately after to stay within an increase of 2.4C; peaking at 2020 will see a 2.8C increase and peaking at 2030 will expect an increase of 3C. Government representatives have signed off on the report, and so we must come to expect that they will act on it. Business as usual is not an option.

Courtesy of the BBC is a quick and easy breakdown of the various sectors for action and the most effective policy choices to be taken. Transport, taxation, waste, energy - cuts in each area need to be made, and they all have competing costs and benefits.

David Adam of the Guardian sums things up as such:
"And while lifestyle changes made by individuals get a mention for the first time, written heavy between the lines on each of the report's 35 pages is the message that it is the responsibility of governments to force through the required changes.

"And the longer they leave it, the more difficult and expensive it will be."