Climate Sense

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Statement by Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research

Impressive progress in climate science, reflected notably in the fourth assessment report of the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and in the results from EU funded research projects,

provided robust findings on the causes of climate change and its impacts over the next decades. Limiting

climate change to a temperature increase of 2°C above pre-industrial levels as proposed by the European

Union requires urgent and ambitious global action. The EU is therefore working towards a comprehensive

agreement at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December.

We now know that even within this limit of global average temperature increase there will be serious climate

change impacts requiring adaptation at global and regional levels. However, recognising the need to adapt is

not sufficient. We need to know where, when and how to adapt. This is of paramount importance for policy-

makers. Thus, we need science-based climate information and prediction tools to enable risk management and

adaptation to climate change.

The Third World Climate Conference occurs at a critical moment to stimulate action and increased public

awareness on those issues. Therefore, I strongly support the initiative of the WCC-3 to establish means for

the provision of climate services. These new services will need to inform on the expected consequences

of climate change at time and geographical scales corresponding to society and people’s needs. Achieving

this will require a leap forward in further understanding climate change and sustained efforts in climate

research and observation. We need sound and close international cooperation, extensive combined use of

climate data and models and the development of relevant services for information provision. The European

Commission has been contributing to these endeavours actively with the Framework Programme for

research and will continue to do so.

Janez Potocnik

European Commissioner for Science and Research