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"The Climate Institute's Global Climate Leadership Review 2013 puts Australian climate policy in the context of ongoing international action to address climate change. The second in our annual series, the 2013 Review examines international action across several strands: it identifies which nations are leading the transition to a low-carbon economy; the dynamics and outcomes of intergovernmental climate negotiations; and the implications of all of these for Australia. "

At the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, the latest on-site measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography reveal that global atmospheric carbon-dioxide (CO2) concentrations reached 391.3 parts per million (ppm) in 2011, up from 388.56 ppm in 2010 and from 280 ppm from pre-industrial times. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in order to have a 90-percent chance of avoiding dangerous changes in climate, greenhouse-gases (GHGs) concentrations need to be stabilized at 450 ppm, which would roughly translate into an average temperature increase of 2° Celsius. This means that to stabilize GHG concentrations at 450 ppm, global GHG emissions will need to peak before 2015 and be reduced to 50 percent of their 2000 level by 2050.

"THE United Nation's latest investigation into climate change reportedly admits the world has been warming at only just over half the rate it had claimed in 2007. According to the UK's Daily Mail newspaper, a leaked draft of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) latest assessment of the state of the climate and global warming - AR5 - says the earth has been warming at a rate of 0.12C each decade since 1951. But it says the last major IPCC report, released in 2007 and called AR4, claimed the planet was warming at a rate of 0.2C every decade." See also http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/sep/16/climate-change-contrarians-5-stages-denial

"The fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is due out on September 27th, and is expected to reaffirm with growing confidence that humans are driving global warming and climate change. In anticipation of the widespread news coverage of this esteemed report, climate contrarians appear to be in damage control mode, trying to build up skeptical spin in media climate stories." See also http://www.news.com.au/national-news/global-warming-forecasts-wrong-says-un-report/story-fncynjr2-1226720435324

"On September 27 2013 the 5th Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be released. One part of this report will address the so-called "warming hiatus". This is the argument that warming has stopped, with the further assertion in some quarters that we therefore have nothing to worry about in the future."

"A week ago, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivered to massive media coverage an unsettling message - climate change is real, humans are the main cause of it, and unless we stop the warming of the planet, in 50 years life as we know will be no more. The problem now, is that despite in numerous attempts, world consensus on how to do it has proved impossible."

"A common refrain by climate sceptics that surface temperatures have not warmed over the past 17 years, implying climate models predicting otherwise are unreliable, has been refuted by new research led by James Risbey, a senior CSIRO researcher. Setting aside the fact the equal hottest years on record - 2005 and 2010 - fall well within the past 17 years, Dr Risbey and fellow researchers examined claims - including by some members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - that models overestimated global warming. In a study published in Nature Climate Change on Monday, the team found that models actually generate good estimates of recent and past trends provided they also took into account natural variability, particularly the key El Nino-La Nina phases in the Pacific."

"Published on 30 Mar 2014 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II released its Fifth Assessment Report on climate impacts and adaptation. While some of the consequences of a warming climate are unavoidable, adaptation strategies can help to manage some of the impacts. Dr Mark Howden discusses how CSIRO is developing strategies to help reduce the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and communities."