Climate Change Simulation Guiding Policy or Policy Driven?

There are many difficulties associated with modelling and simulation in general, and simulation of climate change in particular, causing heated debates world wide. The impact of even a small global change may be drastic, varied and could potentially affect everything on the planet. Environmental policy is a controversial issue, and often pits politicians and scientists against one another. The global nature of climate change, the delay between cause and effect of human influence on such a huge scale system, and the potentially disastrous consequences of climate change are why this area of simulation is one of the most often discussed in scientific, social and political contexts. This paper covers some of the problems associated with climate change modelling and simulation, and discusses some of the implications of basing policy decisions on results of such simulations. 1