The Essentials
IPCC, 2014: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change
Why it is important:
All of the IPCC reports are essential reading for all policy makers as well as all global citizens. This is where to start on a journey of understanding where we are and where we are going.
Planning for climate change: Guide – A strategic, values-based approach for urban planners
UN-Habitat
Why it is important:
It gives the urban planner tools to plan for better local resilience to climate change. Create better policy using participatory planning and political engagement across multiple stakeholders.
A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems
by Camille Parmesan & Gary Yohe Nature 421, 37-42 (2 January 2003)
Why it is important:
A highly cited, influential study which manages to "show that recent biological trends match climate change predictions"
Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health
The Lancet Volume 386, No. 10006, p1861–1914, 7 November 2015
Why it is important:
Climate change and its burdens upon health worldwide, require policy actions that are efficient, complex and fact based. The Lancet provides this report "in order to ensure the highest attainable standards of health for populations worldwide"
Past Studies That Serve as Historical Markers for Climate Science
Can We Control Carbon Dioxide?
Nordhaus, W.D. IIASA Working Paper WP-75-063 1975
Targets and Indicators of Climatic Change
edited by F.R. Rijsberman and R.J. Swart Published by The Stockholm Environment Institute 1990