Press Release: EU research highlights importance of polar regions for the global climate

The European Commission has released a report highlighting the advances in understanding the role of polar regions in climate change and the environment that have been made thanks to the European Union's Research Framework programmes. One project, EPICA, has shown that levels of carbon dioxide are at their highest for 650,000 years, raising concerns about the intensity of global warming in the future. The DAMOCLES project has looked at the human and environmental impact of reduction of sea ice cover in the Arctic. It has produced data which will be invaluable in forecasting the effects of melting icecaps and has developed new tools for use in the very specific Arctic conditions. The report comes as the international scientific community launches International Polar Year, a huge scientific campaign with more than 200 projects, involving scientists from more than 60 countries, to focus international attention on the importance of Polar Regions to our climate. As a EU contribution to International Polar Year an International Symposium hosted by the European Commission in Brussels on 5 and 6 March 2007, entitled "Polar environment and climate: the challenges", will bring together high level European and international scientists and discuss future perspectives and research priorities for the polar regions.

European Commission: DG Communication: SPEECH/07/118 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/07/118&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

---