Playing Climate Change Poker

doi:10.1126/science.1146513

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Editorial

Playing Climate Change Poker

Colin Challen

Targets can be troublesome things. If they're set for some distant future date, the target setter may not live long enough to see if they've been met. Interestingly, much discussion about tackling climate change anticipates having achieved something by the middle of this century. What's the target? Both the European Union (EU) and, at a national level, the United Kingdom have focused on a CO₂ emissions cut of at least 60%, which is intended to reduce average global warming by 2°C. (The June G8 summit also spoke of an emissions cut of 50% globally, but only in the context of exploring such a goal and with no greenhouse gas stabilization target in mind.)

Colin Challen is a member of Parliament and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, which has launched an inquiry into the setting of greenhouse gas reduction targets. E-mail: challenc{at}parliament.uk

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In Science Magazine

LETTERS Climate Change Goals: Where to Begin?: Bernard D. Goldstein; and Colin Challen (4 January 2008)
Science 319 (5859), 33a. [DOI: 10.1126/science.319.5859.33a]
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