What is Climate Change?

Over millions of years, our climate has undergone many changes - from ice ages to tropical heat and back again. Natural changes have generally been gradual, allowing people and other species to adapt or migrate, although some prehistoric climate changes may have led to the mass extinction of species.

Greenhouse gases trap the warmth from the sun and make life on earth possible. However, over the previous 50 to 100 years, there has been a large increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)) in the atmosphere due to human activities. This increase produces an ‘enhanced greenhouse effect’ that causes Earth to heat at a fast rate, causing climate change and global warming.

The world is experiencing a rise in temperature, increasing sea levels, more frequent extreme weather events and a change in rainfall patterns. These climatic changes will potentially impact native ecosystems, industries, infrastructure, health, biosecurity and our economy.

In 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that human-induced climate change was a real threat to our future. In response, the United Nations General Assembly convened a series of meetings that has culminated in the Kyoto Protocol .