Key global warming guide is finished

A key guide for governments on global warming was finally completed today after scientists and diplomats worked through the night.

The document declares climate change is here and is getting worse, one of its authors said.

Provisional agreement on the text, which is about 20 pages and summarises thousands of pages of data and projections, required compromises among the more than 140 delegations, but resulted in a “good and balanced document,” said Bert Metz, a Dutch scientist who helped draft the report.

The brief 'Summary for Policymakers' will be given final approval later today after a longer version of about 70 pages is reviewed and adopted.

It will be released tomorrow by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Until then, the text is supposed to remain confidential.

The paper will be an “instant guide” to delegates at a critical meeting next month in Indonesia, which could launch a round of complex talks on a new international agreement for controlling carbon emissions and other human activity that is supposedly heating the planet.