R&D important in adapting to climate change :OECD

According to an OECD report, research and development (R&D) incentives are an important policy instrument to help countries adapt to climate change. Without "more ambitious policies", greenhouse gas emissions will increase to almost 685 parts per million (ppm) by 2050. This is well above the 450 ppm required to maintain the global temperature rise at two degrees Celsius, widely considered to be a cut-off point to avoid catastrophic knock-on effects. OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050 — whose climate change chapter is published for UN climate change conference (COP 17) in Durban, South Africa, says that mitigation pledges made so far are "not enough", and that time to tackle rising emissions is running out. The report highlights technology support as one of the main policy tools for climate change mitigation. The full version of the report will be released in March 2012.