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2007 Bali Climate Declaration by Scientists

Posted on Thursday, December 06, 2007

A consensus Bali Climate Declaration, signed by more than 200 members of the international climate science community, says that the goal of a new climate treaty regime “must be to limit global warming to no more than 2º C above the pre-industrial temperature,” and lays out targets for achieving this goal. The signers of the Declaration include about 75 U.S. scientists, in both universities and government labs.

Our comment follows the list of signers.

This consensus document was prepared under the auspices of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Bali Climate Declaration

The 2007 IPCC report, compiled by several hundred climate scientists, has unequivocally concluded that our climate is warming rapidly, and that we are now at least 90% certain that this is mostly due to human activities. The amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere now far exceeds the natural range of the past 650,000 years, and it is rising very quickly due to human activity. If this trend is not halted soon, many millions of people will be at risk from extreme events such as heat waves, drought, floods and storms, our coasts and cities will be threatened by rising sea levels, and many ecosystems, plants and animal species will be in serious danger of extinction.

The next round of focused negotiations for a new global climate treaty (within the 1992 UNFCCC process) needs to begin in December 2007 and be completed by 2009. The prime goal of this new regime must be to limit global warming to no more than 2 ºC above the pre-industrial temperature, a limit that has already been formally adopted by the European Union and a number of other countries.
Based on current scientific understanding, this requires that global greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced by at least 50% below their 1990 levels by the year 2050. In the long run, greenhouse gas concentrations need to be stabilised at a level well below 450 ppm (parts per million; measured in CO2-equivalent concentration). In order to stay below 2 ºC, global emissions must peak and decline in the next 10 to 15 years, so there is no time to lose.

As scientists, we urge the negotiators to reach an agreement that takes these targets as a minimum requirement for a fair and effective global climate agreement.

The 2007 Bali Climate Declaration has been signed by the following scientists:

Name	Title	Country
Richard Allan	Dr	United Kingdom
Richard Anthes	Dr	USA
Waleed Abdalati	Head, Cryospheric Sciences Branch	USA
Becky Alexander	Assistant Professor	USA
Ian Allison	Dr	Australia
Caspar Ammann	Research Scientist	USA
Leif Anderson	Professor	Sweden
Jean-Claude Andre	Dr	France
Natalie Andronova	Research Scientist	USA
David Archer	Professor	USA
Mike Archer	Professor. Dean of Science	Australia
Vincenzo Artale	Senior Research Scientist	Italy
Paulo Artaxo	Professor	Brazil
Karen Assmann	Dr	Norway
Dorothee Bakker	Dr	United Kingdom
Edouard Bard	Professor College de France	France
Tim Barnett	Research Marine Physicist	USA
J. Ray Bates	Professor	Ireland
Richard Bellerby	Dr	Norway
Rasmus E. Benestad	Dr	Norway
Terje Berntsen	Senior Scientist	Norway
Nathan Bindoff	Professor Physical Oceanography	Australia
Robert Bindschadler	Chief Scientist, Hydrospheric/Biospheric Laboratory	USA
Roxana Bojariu	Head, Climate Research Group	Romania
Sandrine Bony	Research Scientist	France
Laurent Bopp	Dr	France
Alberto Borges	Dr	Belgium
Philippe Bousquet	Assistant Professor	France
Pascale Braconnot	Dr	France
Raymond S. Bradley	Professor. Director. Climate System Research Center	USA
Guy Brasseur	Senior Scientist	USA
Francois-Marie Breon	Professor	France
Christopher Bretherton	Director. Program on Climate Change	USA
Victor Brovkin	Dr	Germany
Erik Buitenhuis	Dr	United Kingdom
Pep Canadell	Executive Director Global Carbon Project	Australia
Mark Cane	Professor	USA
Carlo Carraro	Professor	Italy
Anny Cazenave	Senior Scientist	France
Marie-Lise Chanin	Director of Research Emeritus	France
Sylvie Charbit	Dr	France
Robert J. Charlson	Professor	USA
John Church	Chief Research Scientist	Australia
Garry Clarke	Emeritus Professor of Geophysics	Canada
Martin Claussen	Professor. Director. Max Planck Inst.	Germany
William D. Collins	Professor and Senior Scientist	USA
Paul Crutzen	Professor	Germany/USA
Kurt M. Cuffey	Professor	USA
Valerie Daux	Dr	France
Anthony Del Genio	Physical Scientist	USA
Kenneth Denman	Senior Scientist	Canada
Robert E. Dickinson	Professor	USA
Paul Dirmeyer	Research Scientist	USA
Helge Drange	Professor	Norway
Kerry Emanuel	Professor	USA
Matthew England	Professor and ARC Federation Fellow	Australia
Ian Enting	Professor	Australia
Jean-Louis Fellous	Earth observation satellite expert	France
Jonathan Fink	Director. Global Institute of Sustainability	USA
Andreas Fischlin	Director Terrestrial Systems Ecology. ETH Zurich	Switzerland
Jacqueline Flückiger	Research Scientist	Switzerland
Chris E. Forest	Research Scientist	USA
Piers Forster	Reader in Climate Change Physics	UK
Joos Fortunat	Professor	Switzerland
Roger Francey	Senior Scientist	Australia
Helen Amanda Fricker	Associate Research Geophysicist	USA
Pierre Friedlingstein	Dr	France
Andrew D. Friend	Dr	United Kingdom
Qiang Fu	Professor	USA
Andrey Ganopolski	Scientist	Germany
Catherine Gautier	Professor	USA
Alexander Gershunov	Research Climatologist	USA
Sarah Gille	Associate Professor	USA
Nathan Gillet	Dr	UK
Valerie Gros	Dr	France
Nicolas Gruber	Professor	Switzerland
Hoshin Gupta	Professor	USA
Kimio Hanawa	Professor	Japan
Bogi Hansen	Professor	Faroe Islands
Mohamed H.A. Hassan	Professor	Italy
Klaus Hasselmann	Prof. Emeritus	Germany
Gerald Haug	Professor	Switzerland
Didier Hauglustaine	Directeur de Recherche CNRS	France
A. D. J. Haymet	Professor	USA
Gabriele Hegerl	Dr and Reader Geosciences	UK,USA
Martin Heimann	Professor. Director. Max-Planck-Inst.	Germany
Christoph Heinze	Professor in Chemical Oceanography	Norway
Ann Henderson-Sellers	Professor	Australia
Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen	Head of Climate Research Programme	Denmark
Bruce Hewitson	Professor	South Africa
Kip Hodges	Director. School of Earth & Space Exploration	United States
Georg Hoffman	Dr	France
Marika Holland	Scientist	USA
David M Holland	Professor	USA
Elisabeth A. Holland	Program Lead, Biogeosciences Program, NCAR	USA
Greg Holland	Senior Scientist Severe Weather Research and Applications	USA
Lesley Hughes	Professor	Australia
James W. Hurrell	Senior Scientist	USA
Stan Jacobs	Senior Research Scientist	USA
Eystein Jansen	Professor. Director	Norway
Truls Johannessen	Professor of Chemical Oceanography	Norway
Ian Joughin	Senior Engineer	USA
Masa Kageyama	Dr	France
Robert Kandel	Emeritus Senior Scientist	France
Georg Kaser	Professor	Austria
Ralph Keeling	Professor of Geochemistry	USA
Robert M. Key	Research Oceanographer	United States
Jeffrey Kiehl	Senior Scientist	USA
Miko Kirschbaum	Senior Scientist	New Zealand
Christine Klaas	Dr	Germany
Albert Klein Tank	Dr	Netherlands
Reto Knutti	Professor	Switzerland
Rupa Kumar Kolli	Dr	India
René Laprise	Professor. Director ESCER Centre	Canada
Corinne Le Quere	Professor	United Kingdom
Herve Le Treut	Director. Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique	France
Peter Lemke	Professor	Germany
Conway Leovy	Professor Emeritus	USA
Sydney Levitus	Director. World Data Center for Oceanography	USA
Ulrike Lohmann	Professor	Switzerland
Diana Liverman	Professor	United Kingdom
Dan Lubin	Research Physicist	USA
Joachim Luther	Professor	Germany
Amanda H. Lynch	Professor and ARC Federation Fellow	Australia
Jose Antonio Marengo	Senior Scientist	Brazil
Jochem Marotzke	Professor. Director. Max Planck Inst.	Germany
Valerie Masson-Delmotte	Dr	France
Ben Matthews	Dr	Belgium
Cecilie Mauritzen	Senior Scientist	Norway
Bryant McAvaney	Senior Principal Research Scientist	Australia
James J. McCarthy	Professor of Oceanography	USA
Jeffrey J. McDonnell	Professor and Richardson Chair in Watershed Science	USA
Trevor J. McDougall	Dr	Australia
Tony McMichael	Professor	Australia
Ben McNeil	Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellow	Australia
Nicolas Metzl	Dr	France
Elisabeth Michel	Dr	France
Guy Midgley	Dr	South Africa
Arthur J. Miller	Research Oceanographer	USA
Gunnar Myhre	Senior Scientist	Norway
Neville Nicholls	Professor	Australia
Richard D. Norris	Professor and Curator, SIO Geological Collections	USA
Daniel Olago	Dr. Senior Lecturer University of Nairobi	Kenya
Michael Oppenheimer	Professor	USA
Bette Otto-Bliesner	Senior Scientist	USA
Jonathon Overpeck	Director Institute for the Study of Planet Earth	USA
Didier Paillard	Dr	France
Wm. Richard Peltier	University Professor of Physics	Canada
Andy Pitman	Professor	Australia
Serge Planton	Senior Scientist	France
Gian-Kasper Plattner	Dr	Switzerland
Jan Polcher	Directeur de Recherche du CNRS	France
Michael J. Prather	Fred Kavli Professor	USA
Stefan Rahmstorf	Professor of Physics of the Oceans	Germany
Philip Rasch	Senior Scientist	USA
Michael Raupach	Dr	Australia
Chris Reason	Professor. Oceanography	South Africa
James Renwick	Science Leader, Climate Variability & Change	New Zealand
Ulf Riebesell	Professor	Germany
Stephen R. Rintoul	Dr	Australia
Johan Rockström	Associate Professor	Sweden
Terry L. Root	University Faculty, Senior Fellow	USA
Lynn M. Russell	Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry	USA
Toshiro Saino	Professor	Japan
Christoph Schär	Professor in Atmospheric Sciences, ETH Zurich	Switzerland
John Schellnhuber	Professor	Germany
Gavin Schmidt	Research Scientist, NASA GISS	USA
Stephen H. Schneider	Professor	USA
Birgit Schneider	Dr	France
Michael Schulz	Senior Scientist	France
Richard Seager	Senior Research Scientist	USA
Jeffrey P. Severinghaus	Professor of Geosciences	USA
Drew Shindell	Senior Scientist and Lecturer	USA
W James Shuttleworth	Professor. Director NSF SAHRA Center	USA
Murugesu Sivapalan	Professor	USA
John P. Smol	Professor	Canada
Olga Solomina	Dr	Russia
Richard Somerville	Professor	USA
Will Steffen	Professor	Australia
Thomas Stocker	Professor	Switzerland
Kristof Sturm	Associate Professor	Sweden
John Sulston	Dr	United Kingdom
Didier Swingedouw	Dr	France
Lynne D. Talley	Professor	USA
Karl E. Taylor	Dr	USA
Fichefet Thierry	Professor	Belgium
Helmuth Thomas	Associate Professor. Canada Reseach Chair	Canada
Jerry Tjiputra	Dr	Indonesia
Kevin Trenberth	Dr. Head, Climate Analysis Section	USA
Peter A. Troch	Professor	USA
Carol Turley	Dr	United Kingdom
A.S Unnikrishnan	Senior Scientist	India
Francisco P. J. Valero	Director Atmospheric Research Laboratory	USA
Rob Van Dorland	Dr	The Netherlands
Ricardo Villalba	Director IANIGLA	Argentina
Martin Visbeck	Professor	Germany
Andrea Volbers	Dr	Norway
Thorsten Wagener	Assistant Professor	USA
John Wahr	Professor	USA
Warren M. Washington	Senior Scientist	USA
Bob Wasson	Professor	Australia
Andrew Watson	Professor	United Kingdom
Ian G. Watterson	Dr	Australia
Andrew Weaver	Professor	Canada
Peter J. Webster	Professor	USA
Ray F. Weiss	Professor	USA
James W.C. White	Professor	USA
Jürgen Willebrand	Professor Emeritus	Germany
Larry Winter	Deputy Director NCAR	USA
Carl Wunsch	Professor of Physical Oceanography	USA
Xubin Zeng	Professor	USA
Guang J. Zhang	Research Meteorologist	USA

The Declaration concludes: “As scientists, we urge the negotiators to reach an agreement that takes these targets as a minimum requirement for a fair and effective global climate agreement.”

Thus, the signers are acting as citizen-scientists — bringing their credentials and expertise as scientists to bear in speaking and acting as citizens to engage governments on a central problem of public policy, not solely as science educators but also as advocates. We fully support this. We know that members of the climate science community are undertaking this essential responsibility with the utmost seriousness of purpose. Policymakers and their fellow citizens need to pay attention to what they are saying.

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