Monday 12 November 2007

"There is a contrast between the immense wealth of the IPCC's work and the politically inspired trimming back in this report," says Hans Verolme, Director of WWF's Global Climate Change Programme.

Significant findings on climate change are missing from the IPCC report, Summaries for Policymakers: it is a collation of findings from the three IPCC Working Groups.

The increased incidence of potentially destructive hurricanes, warming of the upper Pacific Ocean and the loss of glaciers in the European Alps are missing from this report.

"These Working Group reports clearly laid the case for deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. But the summaries dilute this," said Verolme.

WWF has responded with a new report, What You Should Know - WWF Summary for policymakers, to bridge that gap by extracting the key findings that failed to make it into the IPCC summaries.

"We need strong international leadership and clear signals for change," says WWF's Adaptation Policy Advisor, Kit Vaughan.

While the UK's Climate Change Bill is the world's first to set legally binding targets and aims to cut British emissions by 60% by 2050, WWF believes more stringent targets need to be set.

WWF is advocating a cut of 80% as the minimum that the government should be demanding.

"National governments must take a lead. The UK government can send a strong signal for action, but this must be reinforced by a commitment to 80% cuts in the new Climate Change Bill, so that we have the real solution for climate change that the science shows is necessary," concluded Vaughan.