In this issue of Weather

Abstract

This November 2017 issue focusses on climatic change. It coincides with the meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference Of Parties (COP23) to be held in Bonn, Germany between 6 and 17 November.We have included five papers which cover different aspects of the climate issue.In ‘Recent United Kingdom and global temperature variations’ on p. 323, Tim Osborne, Phil Jones and Manoj Joshi review global and UK temperature trends, setting the UK climate and its recent trends in the context of world climate, laying out the uncertainties that climatologists must grapple with, as well as showing that human influence is the main factor in long‐term changes of climate.Have you ever wondered how nations approach the need to negotiate changes in human activity resulting from the evidence that we are changing global climate? Well, David Warrilow reviews the use of scientific evidence in the development of the international response to climate change on p. 330 in ‘Science and the international climate negotiations’.On p. 340, Jason Lowe, Nigel Arnell, Rachel Warren, Ajay Gambhir, Dan Bernie and Erica Thompson discuss the impacts of different levels of warming and how warming might be limited through programmes to limit the output of greenhouse gases in ‘Avoiding dangerous climate: results from the AVOID2 programme’.Our fourth main paper asks ‘Can Arctic warming influence UK extreme weather?’ Edward Hanna, Richard Hall and James Overland consider the possible links between the loss of Arctic sea ice and extreme weather over the UK on p. 346.On page 353, Emily Shuckburgh, Dann Mitchell and Peter Stott provide a short review paper, ‘Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria: how natural were these ‘natural disasters’?’ on the formation and effects of the hurricanes that affected many areas surrounding the Caribbean Sea last September.Earlier this year, the Royal Meteorological Society issued a Collective Global Climate Statement supported by a coalition of 33 meteorological and climate societies across the world. This acknowledges the overwhelming scientific evidence that our planet is warming, largely due to emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities and calls for prompt, sustained, global, collaborative, evidence‐based action to avoid the largest impacts of climate change. This evidence shows that there is a proportional relationship between greenhouse gas concentrations and temperature, so that as greenhouse gases increase in our atmosphere, temperatures – and the related effects of higher temperatures – increase.’This month’s issue is the result of a decision by the Society to enhance its activities on climate change whilst maintaining its core interest in weather.