Last week science moved into politics as 2,500 leading climate experts gathered in Copenhagen to make a passionate plea to politicians: Act now before climate change renders large areas of our planet completely uninhabitable.

This is the most significant event so far in a series of meetings building up to the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen this December. The summit will see 15,000 delegates from across the world, including all major leaders, meeting to thrash out a replacement for the Kyoto protocol. The environmental movement views the conference as our last chance to act on climate change, to strike a deal that binds all nations to embrace and enforce solutions to global warming. We can expect some drama.

Last week’s meeting was a taster of what’s to come. A document updating the climate scientists’ latest findings was presented to the Danish prime minister to be distributed ahead of the summit, laying the cards clearly on the table for world leaders:

• Previous models of climate change have now been rendered useless due to even larger than expected rises in emissions and a better understanding of the consequences. We’re already moving out of a recognisable climate, and change is accelerating. It’s much worse than we previously thought.
• The likelihood of mean temperatures rising by 6 degrees is increasing drastically. Whilst we’ve all made the “this would be quite nice in the UK” joke, the global implications are vast tracts of land being lost to sea level rises; rainforests being destroyed; hurricanes; severe drought, and areas of the earth becoming completely inhabitable due to extreme temperatures, producing conditions not seen for 30 million years.
• So what would this mean? Mass crop failure. Acidification of the oceans ruining their ecology. A complete depletion of resources.
• So what will that mean? Billions of people left homeless. The spread of disease. Conflict over resources, drawn out for centuries, and a planet made unsustainable for the species which depend on it for survival.

What was really interesting was how the scientists’ group are trying to get through to the politicians, directly criticising “ineffective governments” and weak institutions, saying there’s “no excuse for inaction.” They appealed to leaders to stand up to large businesses with “vested interests” and make commitments to real change.

"Scientists have lost patience with carefully constructed messages being lost in the political noise. We are now prepared to stand up and say enough is enough." Prof Kevin Anderson, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Manchester

The conference declared that solutions are still possible, but require strong leadership and innovation. They asserted that we have the technology, money, and public support to succeed.  With a passionate call to action, they demonstrate clearly what we’re up against, but conclude that the challenge is one we can meet if we act fast and act together.

The document detailing the scientists’ findings will be published in June. The next step will be presenting solutions.

We’ll be covering the run-up to Copenhagen in December with regular updates, so keep reading the blog to find out why it’s being labelled “the most important event of our lifetime.”

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