Attachment A RESPONSE TO KEY RPC CLAIMS Scientific Consensus on the Fundamentals of Climate Change

There is high confidence regarding critical elements of climate change science. The RPC document misrepresents the state of climate change science. The agreement among the vast majority of climate change experts is that: 1) there is a natural greenhouse effect that keeps the world warmer than it otherwise would be; 2) greenhouse gases are increasing in the atmosphere because of human activities and they are trapping increasingly more heat; 3) there is a collective picture of a warming world and humans have likely contributed; and 4) continued increase in greenhouse gases is projected to lead to increases in sea-level rise and global temperatures. There also are areas of uncertainty which includes: 1) the exact magnitude of future climate change in individual regions; and 2) the implications of climate change for extreme events and climate surprises