A warmer world: Greenhouse effect and climate change Third edition

The seriousness of climate change and the need for rapid action has never been clearer. At the same time, a lot of new knowledge has been developed about the climate system and the human climate impact. In Paris, the world agreed in autumn 2015 after years of difficult negotiations on an agreement involving 197 parties aiming to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Just under a year later, enough parties had ratified the Paris Agreement to enter into force. Discussions both on technical aspects of implementation and on an increased level of ambition for mitigation of climate-impacted emissions are progressing as stipulated by the agreement. Last but not least, the climate issue has had an impact that never before among the mass media, decision-makers and the common man. In the spring of 2003, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency first published the book A Warmer World. Four years later, in the autumn of 2007, an update called An Even Warmer World was made. In both editions, in popular science form, an overview of our knowledge of greenhouses ekten, of past and future climate change and of the consequences of these changes on the natural environment and human living conditions was presented. In the years since then, a lot has happened in the area of climate change. Temperature, precipitation, storms and ice melting have reached new record levels worldwide, and rows of dramatic weather phenomena and weather-related natural disasters have taken place both in Sweden and abroad. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is now publishing a revised, updated and expanded version of the book A Warmer World. One important aspect highlighted is that measures to successfully address the climate issue are already available today, and that climate-smart solutions increasingly appear to be the obvious choices. The revision of text and image material is thorough, but to connect with previous editions, the new book has been titled A Warmer World — Third Edition. Like its predecessors, A warmer world is useful as a textbook at basic university level and as a next-reading book in upper secondary science education. A benchmark for the design of text and images has been that interested pupils in upper secondary school should be able to absorb the content without much difficulty. At the same time, the book should serve as a source of knowledge and reference for anyone who has environmental protection, climate work, energy supply or community planning as a profession. A large part of the new material in the book is taken from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which for the fifth time published a comprehensive compilation of current climate research in 2013-2014. In addition, a number of new data on specifi kt Swedish or European conditions are reproduced, based on research into the eff eects of climate change in our regions. The book also presents a large number of calculations of how Sweden and Europe’s climate could change for the remainder of the current century. These calculations have been carried out at the Rossby Centre at SMHI in Norrköping. A warmer world — The third edition has been compiled by Claes Bernes, Stockholm Environment Institute. The content has been reviewed by researchers and experts at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Lund University. A warm thank you to all participants! Björn Risinger, Director General Environmental Protection Agency