1.2 The science

The state of the art knowledge on climate change is presented in the five-yearly reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). IPCC (Hougton et al. 1996: 4) concludes, on the basis of existing science that "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on the global climate." However, some scientists claim that IPCC conclusions are faulty since they are based on unrealistic models and are political and not scientific assessments (Emsley 1996). Nevertheless, the scientific debate indicates that there is some degree of confidence in the data on emission levels, but there is less confidence about the role of sinks in absorbing these emissions and the impact of the emissions on the global climate. Given the scientific uncertainty "we will have to abandon our unrealistic demand for a single certain truth and instead strive for transparency of the various positions and learn to live with pluralism in climate change risk assessment" (van der Sluijs 1997).