Press Release: Climate change: IPCC report supports EU goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees C

European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report pulblished on 6 April 2007 provides further backing for the European Union's objective of limiting global warming to no more than 2° Celsius above the pre-industrial temperature. The report, drawn up by a working group comprising many of the world's leading climate scientists, shows that climate change is already having widespread effects – for instance on people, ecosystems and water resources.These will become stronger the higher the temperature rises. Stabilising the global temperature increase at no more than 2°C above the pre-industrial level is expected to prevent irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes in the global climate, such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, but it would not avert all impacts.