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.