Regional Climate Change: Where Do We Stand?

The Intergovemmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that the global mean temperature has been increased O.6±O.2 0 during the 20th century while the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide also increased from 280 ppm to 370 ppm in the Third ASSeSSlTIent Report (TAR) published in 2001. It is also noted that 'There is new and stronger evidence that 1110St of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities'. There are indications of impacts of regional climate change on natural systems and also human systems. Recently, the frequencies of new reports and many media coverings on evidences of changing climate are increasing very rapidly, especially since the effectuation of the Kyoto Protocol. Based on all IPCC scenarios (from Special Report on Emission Scenarios, 2000) the global mean temperature and sea level are projected to increase by 1.4 to 5.8°C and 9 to 88 em, respectively, during the 21st century. The projected temperature change is about two to ten times larger than the warming of past 100 years. This change will bring beneficial and adverse effects on both natural and human systems and the adverse effect will be larger if the rate of change is larger. Therefore, it is very important to understand the regional climate change and also develop suitable adaptation measures against the probable impacts of regional climate change, The purpose of this study is to evaluated the past climate change in Korea and to proj ect regional climate changes in the 21st century. This regional information is necessary to assess the impacts of climate change and thus to develop adaptation measures.