Improving future climate prediction using palaeoclimate data: A community White Paper
for consideration by the
Natural Environment Research Council, UK
This White Paper represents an outcome of “The Leverhulme Climate Symposium 2008 - Earth’s Climate:
Past, Present and Future”, convened by H. Elderfield, M. Bickle, G. Allen and E. Shuckburgh, and held at the
University of Cambridge and the Royal Society, London, 10th - 13th March 2008.
Information on the Symposium is available at http://www.leverhulmeclimatesymposium.org/. Knowledge of
past climate change can be used to improve our understanding of future climate change, but the full benefits
of this archive have yet to be realised. The Symposium focused on determining what lessons from the past
can be used to inform the future. This document builds on that objective and discusses how improved future
climate prediction may be achieved using palaeoclimate data.
The symposium and this report have been made possible by generous funding from The Leverhulme Trust.