Why climate change matters

At the start of our work, we wanted to establish for certain the science behind climate change. We asked some of the country's leading climate change experts to provide submissions on the science and its impacts.

1. Professor Mike Hulme of the Tyndall Centre argues why climate change matters for society, what risks and opportunities it brings, and how the global climate can be re-stabilised.

2. Mark Lynas, author of High Tide, urges the UK Government to make the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions an overriding priority in order to safeguard British and global security over the next hundred years.

Professor Lord Robert May, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the        Government and President of the Royal Society, has reviewed both documents and approved the integrity of the science presented.

3. Professor Michael Depledge, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Environment Agency, draws our attention to the potentially disastrous consequences of climate change for biodiversity.