As science becomes more advanced in recent years, research have shown that if we do not start to do anything about the climate change, the results would be so undesirable that it would transform earth into a place unfit for humans to live in.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fourth Assessment Report (4AR) and concluded that climate change is unequivocal, citing evidences from increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level. Global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to observed increases in anthropogenic, or human-caused, GHG emissions in the atmosphere. Human activities such as fossil fuel usage, land use change and agriculture are contributing to this increase in atmospheric GHG concentrations.

In the same year, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released its annual Human Development Report 2007/2008 and stated that “Climate Change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st century. Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty.” Climate change will also disproportionately impact developing nations and affect their developmental growth although the bulk of past GHG emission is attributed to the industrialization of developed countries. Some developing countries, like the low-lying islands of Asia-Pacific, are already experiencing effects of climate change, such as rising global sea levels.

In Oct 2008, in its European update of climate science since the release of IPCC 4AR, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warned that climate change is advancing faster, stronger and sooner than expected. New studies of global warming reveal that IPCC 4AR projections of climate impacts are at times underestimated, especially in areas of Arctic ice melt, rising global sea levels, actual emissions growth rate, and the declining capacities of the earth’s natural ‘sinks’. For example, the Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice 30 or more years ahead of the projections presented in the IPCC 4AR.

Thus, the impetus to act on climate change is immediate and urgent. Failure to respond to the impending climate threat will have far-reaching consequences for humankind and the planet at large. To prevent global temperatures from rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius, global GHG emissions have be reduced 50 – 80% below 1990 levels. The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan on Saturday 13 December signalled a clear commitment from governments to shift into full negotiating mode next year in 2009 in order to craft an ambitious and effective response to climate change, for an agreement to be reached at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen.

GHG Inventory