Global Warming on a Steady Course

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CICERO scientists have now developed a new method to reduce fluctuations in calculating rate of global warming

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, international scientists have taken on a persistent problem in climate science: near-term climate evolution.

"Common wisdom is that it may take up to 20 years before we can detect with certainty that a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is also successfully reducing the rate of global warming. Our new method cuts this time in half, promising a faster response time for policy makers working on crucial mitigation efforts. At the same time, we can reveal that global warming still is on a steady course, with no acceleration or slowdown”, says senior researcher Bjørn Hallvard Samset at CICERO Center for International Climate Research.

The global surface temperature in a given year is affected both by global warming and internal variation in the climate system. Examples of internal variation are the El Nino and La Nina phenomena in the Pacific, and the NAO-index in the North Atlantic. These variations are independent of global warming, but can still influence global temperature by up to 0,5 degrees Celsius each year.

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