Climate and Development: Climate Change and Variability and the Resulting Social, Economic and Technological Implications

The Hamburg Congress on Climate and Development was conceived as a response to the worldwide interest on issues of climatic change and variability. It was intended as an interdisciplinary forum to bring together differing perceptions in a face to face dialogue. Even though concern over climate change has been on the international agenda of international interest became evident in the for over a decade, a new surge wake of two recent events. One was the widespread support received by the 1987 Brundtland Commission Report, Our Common Future, and the other was the 1988 Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. Although the problem of the ozone layer related to a single category of sub­ stances (CFCs), it took many years and a dramatk discovery of the ozone hole in Antarctica to allow for a breakthrough leading to an international agreement. The problems associated with climatic change and variability are much more com­ plex and pervasive than those of the ozone layer, and a much wider range of national and international issues are involved. The discussions in the 1988 session of the General Assembly of the United Nations revealed a surge of interest and growing awareness of the international community of the issues involved. Before that, the June 1988Toronto Conference on "The Changing Atmosphere: Implications for Global Security" was a signifi­ cant effort in forging a consensus on desirable targets for global action.