Click here to see more recent policy reports and statements.
July 2007 Response to the draft climate change bill. This response is broadly supportive of the principle of the bill, although critical of the exclusion of other greenhouse gases, and of the failure to include aviation and shipping emissions. It strongly recommends that legally binding targets be linked explicitly to emission stabilisation goals and the EU target of limiting increases in global temperature to 2°C.
June 2007 Climate change controversies: a simple guide. An overview of the state of scientific understanding of climate change to help non-experts better understand some of the debates. Explained where the weight of scientific evidence lay on eight key arguments then in circulation.
September 2006 Royal Society and ExxonMobil. In September 2006, the Royal Society wrote to ExxonMobil to express concern about Exxon Mobil’s funding of lobby groups that seek to misrepresent the scientific evidence relating to climate change.
February 2006 Response to the Stern Review on economics of climate change.The response stresses that while decisions about how to minimise and adapt to climate change would ultimately be informed by social, economic and political considerations, it was absolutely vital that economic analysis of climate change was informed by sound science.
June 2005 Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Chaired by Professor John Raven FRS. Found that emissions of carbon dioxide from human activities over the past 200 years had already led to a reduction in the average pH of surface seawater of 0.1 units and could fall by 0.5 units by the year 2100. The report outlined our best understanding of the impacts of these chemical changes on the oceans. The impacts of ocean acidification on other marine organisms and ecosystems were much less certain.
May 2005 Response to Defra review of the UK Climate Change Programme. The response highlighted that Government policies should be directed towards ensuring that a penalty is put on all CO2 emissions produced from human activities from the domestic, industrial and transport sectors. It concluded that the introduction of well-designed economic instruments, such as a carbon tax or auctioned permits, was the most cost-efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
November 2002 Economic instruments for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Chaired by Professor Sir Eric Ash FRS. Examined the options of a direct carbon tax and tradable emissions permits
July 2001 The role of land carbon sinks in mitigating global climate change. Chaired by Professor Sir David Read FRS. The report highlighted considerable uncertainty in the scientific understanding of the causes, magnitude and permanence of the land carbon sink.