In 2007, the UN’s climate panel concluded that the global warming of the last 50 years probably is due to the man-made increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
If we do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly, the climate will change dramatically in the future.
Natural climatic variations have cooled down and heated up the earth several times in the course of its history. This is evidenced by the emergence of ice ages and interglacial periods. However, since the onset of industrialisation about 200 years ago, the natural processes steering the climate has been altered.
Human activities have led to increased greenhouse gas emissions, which have resulted in a more intense greenhouse effect and subsequently global warming. As an example, the greenhouse gas CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas, which we globally still do to an increasing extent.
If we are to limit man-made climate change, we must decelerate and mitigate global greenhouse gas emissions. This is one of the reasons the Government aims to make Denmark independent of fossil fuels by 2050, and the reason that Denmark has stipulated binding greenhouse gas emission mitigation targets for itself.
Factbox:
• Goals and framework for the Danish mitigatione efforts
• Danish efforts and instruments within a number of sectors