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Climate Change and the European Water Dimension - Agri ...

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<strong>Climate</strong> <strong>Change</strong><br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

<strong>European</strong> <strong>Water</strong> <strong>Dimension</strong><br />

Chapter I. Observations of Global <strong>Climate</strong><br />

<strong>Change</strong> <strong>and</strong> its impact on <strong>the</strong> hydrological cycle<br />

Key Points<br />

• Average global temperature over l<strong>and</strong> surfaces has risen by<br />

0.6 ± 0.2°C in <strong>the</strong> period from 1861 to 2000. This temperature<br />

increase is unprecedented within <strong>the</strong> past millenium.<br />

• Observations show a non-uniform increase of about 2% in<br />

global l<strong>and</strong> precipitation since <strong>the</strong> beginning of <strong>the</strong> 20 th<br />

century. More extreme precipitation events are observed.<br />

• Direct <strong>and</strong> indirect effects of aerosols appear to exert an<br />

important, but not fully understood, influence on radiative<br />

forcing <strong>and</strong> on <strong>the</strong> hydrological cycle.<br />

• The projected temperature increases over <strong>the</strong> 21 st century for<br />

<strong>the</strong> full set of scenarios developed by <strong>the</strong> IPCC for <strong>the</strong> TAR<br />

were in <strong>the</strong> range 1.4 to 5.8 0 C.<br />

• According to model predictions, precipitation at high<br />

latitudes will increase both summer <strong>and</strong> winter. Mean<br />

precipitation at subtropical latitudes will decrease while<br />

precipitation in most tropical areas will increase.<br />

• Projected sea level rises are in <strong>the</strong> range 0.09 to 0.88 m over<br />

<strong>the</strong> period from 1990 to 2100, however feedbacks <strong>and</strong> nonlinear<br />

effects may lead to an accelerated collapse of ice<br />

sheets <strong>and</strong> thus larger sea level rises.<br />

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