UN scientists finalise largest ever report into climate change

A leaden cloak of responsibility lies on the shoulders of UN scientists as they finalise the first volume of a huge report that will give the world the most detailed picture yet of climate change.

Due to be unveiled in Stockholm on Sep 27, the document will be scrutinised word by word by green groups, fossil-fuel lobbies and governments to see if it will yank climate change out of prolonged political limbo.

The report will kick off the fifth assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chang, an expert body set up in 1988 to provide neutral advice on global warming and its impacts.