The scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes 4th Assessment Report (IPCC AR4) were released on Friday.

The report includes many different findings of current and projected impacts. A lot of it isn't new as we have been seeing these impacts and projections in the news over the past few years. It seems that the big leap forward with this report is the assertion that climate change is "very likely" (90% certainty) to be human induced. This point appears to be resonating with policy makers.

There has been a little criticism that the IPCC report is conservative on sea level rise, a point which is reiterated on the excellent RealClimate.org website gives an excellent breakdown of the IPCC AR4 policy document that came out in February.

"How good have previous IPCC reports been at projecting the future? Actually, over the last 16 years (since the first report in 1990), they've been remarkably good for CO2 changes, temperature changes but actually underpredicted sea level changes."

Ultimately, the report does again highlight the urgency with which we need to act to avoid tragedies such as the loss of arctic summer sea ice and the death of the Great Barrier Reef. Some climate change is inevitable now, just how much is up to us.

There seems to be a sea change happening...lets just hope it beats the sea rise!

WWF's take on the IPCC meeting