CLIMATE CHANGE: Climate strategy 'already obsolete'

TWO days before Ross Garnaut releases his draft report on climate change, a leading Australian researcher says it will almost certainly be obsolete.

Andrew Macintosh, from the ANU's Centre for Climate Law and Policy, told The Age the two climate change scenarios being modelled by the Garnaut Review and the federal Treasury have been rendered out of date by advances in climate science.

Professor Garnaut and the Government are developing two scenarios: one that would limit carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million; and one that would limit it to 550 parts per million. Mr Macintosh said much greater emission cuts than previously thought would be needed to achieve this. He said 450ppm was "nigh on impossible", meaning there was little chance of restricting global warming to less than 2 degrees.

Age 2 Jul 2008