聯合國跨政府氣候變遷小組（IPCC）2日在巴黎發表上百位專家合力完成的報告，證實全球暖化速度越來越快，而人類活動更是主因。科學家還說，即使溫室氣體排放量趨於穩定，暖化趨勢在幾個世紀內都不太可能逆轉。這是IPCC六年來的第一份，已在各界引起震撼。
美國能源部長博德曼（Samuel Bodman）表示，美國欣然接受IPCC的研究結果。在華府接受記者採訪時也表示，「我們同意這份報告結論，其實美國在這份報告背後的科學研究中也扮演了非常重要的角色。」不過，前布希政府仍打算仰賴科技來對抗全球暖化，而不像其他工業國家採取京都議定書所規範的溫室氣體排放控制。博德曼說，從2001年開始，美國在氣候相關的科學研究與科技計畫中已投資了將近290億美元。
企業界方面，杜邦公司2日再次呼籲聯邦政府推動氣候變遷的相關立法，並設立國家對於二氧化碳排放量的上限標準以及交易額度──日前美國十大企業與四個環保團體組成「美國氣候行動夥伴關係」（U.S. Climate Action Partnership），大動作向布希政府施壓，杜邦公司也是其中一員。
新上任的聯合國秘書長潘基文也表示，這個世界正見證了「全球環境的衝擊」，將威脅到人類社會這幾十年來的建設成果，「削弱我們對抗貧窮的努力，甚至會危害到國際和平與安全。」
歐盟環境執委狄瑪斯（Stavros Dimas）則呼籲：「必須要盡快啟動國際協商，重新制定一個全面性的全球氣候變遷協議」。她指出：「要穩定全球溫室氣體排放量的下一步，先進國家在2020年之前必須將他們的排放量削減至1990年代的70%以下，歐盟執委會上個月就已提出這樣的建議。」
義大利環境部長史坎尼歐（Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio）也表明：「氣候變遷跑得像兔子一樣快，而全球政界卻像蝸牛一樣慢慢爬。我們如果不加快速度，就必須要面臨災難威脅。」
澳洲新上任的環境及水務部長湯布（Malcolm Turnbull）則指出，「IPCC報告中的科學研究是相當重要的，但這卻已經不是新聞了。我們早已知道澳洲氣候反覆無常，長期以來不是土地乾旱就是洪水大作。當然我們也不能因此說每一次旱澇都是全球暖化造成的，然而整體的暖化趨勢卻意味著我們必須假設，至少在澳洲南部，我們將生活在更乾而且更熱的環境裡。」
印尼環境部長維托勒（Witoelar）則回應說，由於氣候變遷的關係，印尼到2030年之時，恐怕將會有2000座島嶼淹沒在海中。「這是一個非常、非常嚴重的問題。」維托勒曾在上週和聯合國氣候變化綱要公約（UNFCCC）執行秘書德布爾（Yvo de Boer）共同出席記者會，向媒體記者說明問題的嚴重性。德布爾2日也呼籲，必須要有「快速而果斷的國際行動」以對抗全球暖化的問題。
This morning in Paris, hundreds of scientists from around the world released a report showing that global warming is accelerating, that human activity is responsible for this warming, and that it is likely irreversible for centuries, even if greenhouse gas emissions are stabilized. Reaction to the first report in six years from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, has ranged across the spectrum.
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the United States embraces the findings of the IPCC report. "We agree with it, and the science behind it is something that our country has played a very important role in," he told journalists today in Washington. The Bush administration continues to rely on technology to counter global warming rather than the limits on emissions adopted by other industrialized nations under the Kyoto Protocol. Bodman said the United States has invested nearly $29 billion since 2001 in climate-related science and technology programs.
The DuPont corporation, one of the 10 companies in the newly formed U.S. Climate Action Partnership, called again today on the federal government to enact climate change legislation to create a national cap on carbon dioxide emissions and a market in carbon credits.
Newly appointed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the world is witnessing an "assault on the global environment" that risks undermining the many advances human society has made in recent decades. "It is undercutting our fight against poverty. It could even come to jeopardize international peace and security."
European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas called for "an urgent start to international negotiations on a comprehensive new global climate change agreement." "To stabilize global emissions of greenhouse gases," he said, "the next step must be for developed countries to cut their emissions to 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, as the Commission proposed last month."
"While climate changes run like a rabbit, world-wide politics move like a snail: either we accelerate or we risk a disaster," said Italy's environment minister, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio.
Malcolm Turnbull, Australia's new minister of environment and water resources, said the science in the IPCC report "is important, but it's not new." "We know our Australian climate is volatile – we have always been the land of droughts and flooding rains. But while it isn't possible to say that any particular drought, or flood, is caused by global warming, the overall warming trend means that we must assume that, at least in Southern Australia, we will be living in drier and hotter times," said Turnbull.
Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar says that his country could lose about 2,000 islands by 2030 due to climate change. "It is very, very serious," Witoelar told reporters Monday at a press conference attended by Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Today, de Boer called for "speedy and decisive international action" to combat global warming.
