There is no longer any serious doubt that climate change is taking place. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) in 2007 concluded that most of the warming of our climate is very likely to be due to increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere resulting from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels in power stations for electricity and in vehicles, as well as deforestation.


The AR4 projects that global temperatures will rise by 1.1 to 6.4°C over 1990 levels, while global mean sea levels are projected to rise by 18 to 59cm by around 2100, depending on future scenarios of varying global emission levels. Temperature extremes, heat waves and heavy rainfall events are projected to become more frequent as well.