This book assesses what the real risks of global warming are, how much is known, and what can be done? The great majority of the world's climate scientists have no doubts about the reality of global warming, but governments have so far been reluctant to act. In this report commissioned by Greenpeace a group of leading scientists and energy analysts from all over the world explain the scientific data, assess its implications, and outline the sort of policies that should be implemented if we are to escape what could be the most serious threat our planet has ever faced. The Greenpeace Report has been commissioned as a shadow document to the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released at the Fourth IPCC Conference in Sundvaal, Sweden, from 27-31 August 1990. Although the IPCC scientists will reflect the dominant view that global warming is a major problem, the policy-makers are shaping up to produce a report which wholly fails to provide a prescription of the necessary urgency. The Greenpeace Report is therefore designed to redress this balance by advocating policies consonant with the scientists' warnings. It offers a vision of the environmental imperatives for escaping the greenhouse threat, and a case for their practicability.