In their policy forum ("The limits of consensus," 14 September 2007, P. 1505), M. Oppenheimer et al, make several misleading statements. They suggest that a premature drive for consensus led Working Group I to understate the risk of large future sea-level rise in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (WGI-AR4). (Letters)

Promoting forest restoration and sustainable forest management has more promise for mitigating climate change than narrowly focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

At present, there is much anxiety regarding the security of energy supplies; for example, the UK and other European States are set to become increasingly dependant upon imports of natural gas from states with which political relations are often strained.

Climate is reaching its

Future international scientific climate change assessments should be faster, more integrated, and more directly linked to policy questions.