Global warming

GRAHAM STRINGER MP misrepresents our study to claim global temperatures are not rising as fast as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and suggests that action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is therefore no longer urgent (Mail).

Our study supports the IPCC’s 2013 prediction that temperatures in the 2020s would be 0.9c to 1.3c above pre-industrial levels.

Indeed, warming appears already to be moving into that range. Our study updated estimates of how much carbon dioxide we can still emit while expecting global temperatures to remain below the Paris Climate Agreement goal of 1.5c.

To achieve this goal, emission reductions would need to begin immediately and reach zero in less than 40 years’ time. It is not right to suggest our results reduce the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. MYLES ALLEN and co-authors,

Oxford.