The report "Meeting the climate change" was produced by the International Climate Change Taskforce. This taskforce was set up by three leading think tanks: the Institute for Public Policy Research in the United Kingdom (UK), the Center for American Progress in the United States (US) and The Australia Institute. It consists of leaders from public service, science, business, and civil society in both developed and developing countries.
The recommendations of the taskforce are targeted towards the G8 and the UK Presidency of the European Union in the second half of the year. The main conclusion of the report is that world leaders will have to move faster and take more serious measures if they want to prevent major disasters as a result of the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The British government has welcomed the report, but the Bush administration is said to be extremely angry over the role of the report's scientific adviser, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2001, Mr Pachauri replaced Dr Robert Watson at the head of the IPCC under pressure from the US, who estimated Mr Watson too 'aggressive' on the issue.
The report is likely to fire the debate between the 'believers', who point to the ever-growing scientific consensus on the human origins of climate change and the vociferous climate sceptics, who believe that overly drastic measures take finances away from more urgent world crises such as AIDS or who worry about the negative consequences of strong climate change policies on competitiveness and economic growth.
The EU has been in the forefront of global climate change policies and is preparing further measures on fighting climate change after the first Kyoto 'commitment period' (2008-2012). European industry circles have started to question the EU's world leadership role in the field of climate change in view of the competitiveness pressures of the Lisbon agenda.
