IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007
Climate Change 2007: Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis

TS.6 Robust Findings and Key Uncertainties

TS.6.1 Changes in Human and Natural Drivers of Climate

Robust Findings:

Current atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4, and their associated positive radiative forcing, far exceed those determined from ice core measurements spanning the last 650,000 years. {6.4}

Fossil fuel use, agriculture and land use have been the dominant cause of increases in greenhouse gases over the last 250 years. {2.3, 7.3, 7.4}

Annual emissions of CO2 from fossil fuel burning, cement production and gas flaring increased from a mean of 6.4 ± 0.4 GtC yr–1 in the 1990s to 7.2 ± 0.3 GtC yr–1 for 2000 to 2005. {7.3}

The sustained rate of increase in radiative forcing from CO2, CH4 and N2O over the past 40 years is larger than at any time during at least the past 2000 years. {6.4}

Natural processes of CO2 uptake by the oceans and terrestrial biosphere remove about 50 to 60% of anthropogenic emissions (i.e., fossil CO2 emissions and land use change flux). Uptake by the oceans and the terrestrial biosphere are similar in magnitude over recent decades but that by the terrestrial biosphere is more variable. {7.3}

It is virtually certain that anthropogenic aerosols produce a net negative radiative forcing (cooling influence) with a greater magnitude in the NH than in the SH. {2.9, 9.2}

From new estimates of the combined anthropogenic forcing due to greenhouse gases, aerosols and land surface changes, it is extremely likely that human activities have exerted a substantial net warming influence on climate since 1750. {2.9}

Solar irradiance contributions to global average radiative forcing are considerably smaller than the contribution of increases in greenhouse gases over the industrial period. {2.5, 2.7}

Key Uncertainties:

The full range of processes leading to modification of cloud properties by aerosols is not well understood and the magnitudes of associated indirect radiative effects are poorly determined. {2.4, 7.5}

The causes of, and radiative forcing due to stratospheric water vapour changes are not well quantified. {2.3}

The geographical distribution and time evolution of the radiative forcing due to changes in aerosols during the 20th century are not well characterised. {2.4}

The causes of recent changes in the growth rate of atmospheric CH4 are not well understood. {7.4}

The roles of different factors increasing tropospheric ozone concentrations since pre-industrial times are not well characterised. {2.3}

Land surface properties and land-atmosphere interactions that lead to radiative forcing are not well quantified. {2.5}

Knowledge of the contribution of past solar changes to radiative forcing on the time scale of centuries is not based upon direct measurements and is hence strongly dependent upon physical understanding. {2.7}