Copenhagen Summit Told 10 Years To Stop Catastrophic Climate Change

Scientists yesterday told the Copenhagen Climate Change summit that without drastic cuts in pollution by 2020, at a cost of £150/year per person on the planet, the chances of limiting global temperature rises to the widely debated target 2C are virtually zero.

If the cuts are not achieved, the only solutions left would involve geo-engineering such as mirrors in space to reflect sunlight, but as of yet these are only theoretical, no proof exists that they would work.

729 seperate emissions scenarios have been run by the Met Office and Hadley Centre, Dr Jason Lowe, head of mitigation advice at the Met Office, said: "None of the modelling I have seen has an easy answer to the question of limiting warming to 2C. What this research says is that there are pathways which lead to 2C, the Copenhagen goal, but those pathways appear very challenging in terms of time and rate of emissions reductions.

"The only way you can achieve the 2C target is to peak no later than 2020 and cut emissions by at least 4 per cent every year after that. If you don't manage to do that you will have to turn to geo-engineering.

If global emissions peaked around 2016 and were reduced by 4 per cent by 2018, there would be a 50% chance of limiting the rise to 2C and 90% chance of limiting it to 3C. If cuts of 5 per cent were made, carbon emissions could peak in 2020 at the latest. 5% is the maximum cut that green campaigners think is possible.

As well as completely changing the way we generate power by turning to wind, solar, biofuels and driving electric cars, Dr Rachel Warren of the Hadley Centre said that reductions will be impossible without a dramatic reduced deforestation.

Developing countries at the Copenhagen conference are not impressed by the $10billion a year proposal to help them deal with climate change. They say it pales in comparison to the $1 trillion or more spent on bailing out financial institutions.