Reports and publications

Project report

The Foresight report International Dimensions of Climate Change provides an overview of the evidence of threats and opportunities to the UK from international climate change, and considers how these may be considered by policymakers to ensure the UK is able to remain competitive, secure and able to protect the wellbeing of the nation.

• International Dimensions of Climate Change (PDF, 13.6 Mb) 

Evidence base

There are nine commissioned reviews and seven think-pieces to support the main report:

• The implications for the UK health sector of the international dimensions of climate change, 2010 to 2100 (PDF, 354 Kb)  
• Ethical, social and behavioural impacts of climate change (PDF, 549 Kb)  
• The implications of climate change for global governance and international institutions (PDF, 344 Kb) 
• Physical resources and commodities and climate change - part 1 (PDF, 11.2 Mb)  | Physical resources and commodities and climate change - part 2 (PDF, 11.4 Mb) 
• A reflection on the long-term evolution of international climate change law and potential impacts upon key areas that may require a response from the United Kingdom (PDF, 1.5 Mb)  
• Public understanding of and attitudes towards climate change (PDF, 346 Kb)    
• The implications on the UK of the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise on critical coastal infrastructure overseas, 2010 to 2100 (PDF, 2.9 Mb) 
• The impacts of climate change on overseas infrastructure (excluding sea-level rise) (PDF, 302 Kb) 
• The impact of climate change overseas on the UK financial services sector (PDF, 1.5 Mb)  
• Climate change and geoengineering (PDF, 161 Kb)  
• How climate change will affect the world’s largest companies (PDF, 106 Kb)  
• Achieving scale in investment - global risk and opportunity from climate change (PDF, 643 Kb)  
• Proprietary environments: innovation paradox and policy (PDF, 641 Kb)  
• Climate change and social capital (PDF, 266 Kb)  
• The ramifications of climate change – the security perspective (PDF, 179 Kb)  
• The state of climate change science and technology in the UK (PDF, 537 Kb) 

International Dimensions of Climate Change special issue journal publication notice

The Foresight International Dimensions of Climate Change project findings were published on 11th July 2011, which examined the risks and opportunities the UK will face in a world shaped by climate change.

The underpinning research for the project has now been published in Climate Policy Journal, Volume 12, Supplement 01: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tcpo20/12/sup01 The articles for this Special Issue were re-written and expanded by the authors for an international audience and then independently refereed.

Although the focus of the research presented in the journal is to understand how the impacts of climate change in other places will impact upon the UK, the questions, processes and initial findings have international significance and provide insights for other countries. The most significant indirect climate change impacts are likely to be felt through the international transmission mechanisms of trade, finance, security, migration and global health. The increasing interdependence of economies in the 21st century implies that there are significant threats to the UK and other nations from large global disturbances in addition to the impacts we expect from direct changes to our own climates.

The Special Issue highlights the multiple layers of complexity and uncertainty relating to changes in the global climate. Perhaps the most important policy message is the one that originally motivated the Foresight IDCC report and that underpins the articles in this Special Issue: climate change is an international issue.

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