Introduction to climate change mitigation

Abstract

Since the first edition of the Handbook, important new research findings on climate change have been gathered. The handbook was extended to also cover, apart from climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation as one can witness increasing initiatives to cope with the phenomenon. Instrumental recording shows a temperature increase of 0.5°C Le Houérou (J Arid Environ 34:133-185, 1996) with rather different regional patterns and trends (Folland CK, Karl TR, Nicholls N, Nyenzi BS, Parker DE, Vinnikov KYA (1992) Observed climate variability and change. In: Houghton JT, Callander BA, Varney SDK (eds) Climate change, the supplementary report to the IPCC scientific assessment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 135-170). Over the last several million years, there have been warmer and colder periods on Earth, and the climate fluctuates for a variety of natural reasons as data from tree rings, pollen, and ice core samples have shown. However, human activities on Earth have reached an extent that they impact the globe in potentially catastrophic ways. This chapter is an introduction to climate change.