Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

A surge in Ireland's corporate tax boosts Government’s coffers

Receipts for first 10 months €2.45bn ahead of target

      

Figures from the Department of Finance point to an exchequer deficit of €2.18 billion to October down from €8.5 billion in 2014.

An €803 million surge in corporation tax receipts in the last month puts the Government on course to exceed fiscal targets set out in the Budget only three weeks ago.

Exchequer returns for October show that the Government collected €35.05 billion in tax in the first 10 months of the year, €3.08 billion more than in the same period last year and €2.47 billion above target.

Budget 2016 last month was predicated on a year-end deficit of 2.1 per cent of gross domestic product for 2015, but the Government now anticipates the year-end deficit will come in below 2 per cent of GDP.

Figures from the Department of Finance point to an exchequer deficit of €2.18 billion to October down from €8.5 billion in 2014. Although income tax and VAT receipts were behind target in the month, the shortfalls were eclipsed by increased corporation tax payments.

The overperformance in tax returns comes amid lower overall expenditure than forecast, although there were big spending overruns in the health service and the Department of Environment.

The State received €4.75 billion in corporate taxes in the 10-month period, €1.79 billion more than in 2014 and €2.02 billion above the Department’s target. “The over-performance in the year to date is broad based and primarily relates to improved trading and some timing factors,” the Department said.

Income tax receipts reached €13.86 billion to October, a year-on-year advance of €732 million and €95 million above profile. In the month of October, however, income tax receipts were €24 million or 1.7 per cent below target “driven by an underperformance in DIRT” returns.

Similarly, VAT returns in October were €58 million or 14.7 per cent below target at €340 million. Total VAT payments in the first 10 months of the year were €10 million, €716 million higher than in 2014 and €164 million ahead of target,.

The Department noted October was a non-VAT month, saying VAT receipts in the year to date reflect improved consumer confidence and spending as seen in the advance of retail sales

Excise duties also came in behind target in October but the figures show that returns from the local property tax, stamp duty, capital gains tax and capital acquisitions tax were each ahead of target.

Current expenditure to October reached €32.49 billion, €116 million below profile. A €242 million underspend in the Department of the Agriculture relates to early EU receipts, said the Department of Finance

Net current expenditure for health was €422 million or 4.2 per cent above profile at the end of October. Such spending “is expected to continue running ahead of profile until the end of the year,” the Department said.

Total exchequer debt servicing costs at end-October were €6.45 billion, down €333 million year-on-year on when excluding a sinking fund contribution in 2014. The reduction “largely reflects” the benefit of the early loan repayments to the IMF, said the Department.,

“Interest expenditure at end-October 2015, at €6,354 million,m was €532 million or 7.7 per cent below profile. This is primarily due to lower than expected costs on 2015 bond issuance as well as the faster pace of early repayment of the full portion of IMF loans, which were subject to the higher rate of interest.

Unemployment continues to decline as Irish economy recovers

Youth unemployment rate down to 19.7% versus 20.4% in September

    

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was down from 9.4 per cent in September and from 10.6 per cent for October 2014.

The unemployment rate is continuing to fall with new figures showing it dropped to 9.3 per cent last month.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined from 9.4 per cent in September and from 10.6 per cent for October 2014.

Ireland’s jobless rate compares with a current euro zone average of 10.8 per cent.

According to the latest Central Statistics Office data, the number of people unemployed fell to 203,000 last month, down 1,900 compared to the preceding month and a decline of 24,900 versus the same month a year earlier.

The youth unemployment rate stood at 19.7 per cent for October, down from 20.4 per cent in September.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for men declined from 10.5 per cent in September to 10.3 per cent last month. For October 2014, the male unemployment rate stood at 12.1 per cent.

The unemployment rate for women was unchanged last month versus September at 8.1 per cent but declined from 8.8 per cent for the same month last year.

Alan McQuaid, chief economist with Merrion said while migration has played a role in bringing the jobless rate down from its peak of over 15 per cent during the financial crisis, there is clear evidence of a sharp rise in employment in the past couple of years.

“Labour market conditions continue to strengthen. Consecutive gains in employment have been recorded over the ten quarters to the middle of this year, with some 130,000 additional jobs created since the low-point reached in mid-2012. Furthermore, employment growth remains broad-based, with increases seen in the majority of sectors monitored by the CSO,” said Mr McQuaid.

“With the Irish economy continuing to grow strongly in 2015, an average jobless rate of 9.6 per cent is envisaged for this year down from 11.3 per cent in 2014. We now think the figure at year-end based on these latest CSO numbers will be around the 9.2 per cent level, and falling below the 9 per cent mark in 2016,” he added.

Davy forecast that unemployment could fall to as low as 8.2 per cent next year given the positive outlook for the labour market.

Business group Isme said however that the latest figures showed job creation had slowed and needed to be reinvigorated.

Meat and cancer link will not hurt Irish exports,

Says Phil Hogan

Agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan says EU’s products ‘are very best in the world’

    

EU agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan believes the recent WHO report on meat links to cancer was “misinterpreted”.

A controversial report putting various meat products in the same category of cancer risk as tobacco and asbestos will not impact on Irish exports, EU agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan has said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) research published last week provoked considerable public concern when it said red meat such as beef and lamb were “probably carcinogenic”, linking consumption to higher risks of pancreatic and prostate cancer.

However, Mr Hogan has moved to quell industry fears from the report’s fallout during a speech to the annual Irish Co-operative Organisation Society conference in Dublin on Tuesday.

“Our meat products are the very best in the world,” he said of wider-European production.

“My services and I have taken note of the recent WHO report and we do not believe it will have any meaningful impact on sales of our high-quality, traceable meat products.”

Mr Hogan limited his comments on the subject to just that, although they follow clarification from the WHO itself which said the message contained in its report had been “misinterpreted”.

Spokesman Gregory Härtl said the research was about reducing meat consumption. “We’re not saying stop eating processed meats altogether.”

New markets

Elsewhere, in a broad speech on European agriculture, Mr Hogan said the “era of quotas is over” and the future is about new markets and financial investment.

The EU is now the world’s largest trader of agri-food products with exports totalling €122 billion and imports €104 billion.

“We have had an increasingly positive trade balance since 2010 and last year we maintained our good export performance even despite the Russian ban [on imports following international sanctions imposed against it],” he said.

The market future will be shaped by an expanding global middle class, he said, whose growth in disposable income will result in significant changes to dietary patterns and demand for higher quality food.

“Opening up new markets will be a key priority in the coming years. We are optimistic about finding new markets for our products – perhaps within the EU, but also elsewhere in the world such as the Far East,” he told delegates.

Trade agreement has been secured with South Korea while talks are ongoing withVietnam and Japan; a free trade deal with the latter, Mr Hogan said, would represent “huge prospects” for the beef and grain sectors.

Next year he is to visit a number of countries on a “diplomatic offensive”, beginning with Columbia and Mexico in February.

On the issue of finance, he said: “European dairy farmers will soon be able to make use of volatility-proofed loans. The opportunity to make progress on such a tool has been one of the themes of our engagement with the European Investment Bank.

The brains of men and women are no different

   

One study claimed the hippocampus of women to be larger in relative comparison to the whole brain while another proclaimed the male brain the winner. The latest analysis discredits all those claims.

There are no significant differences in the brains of men and women, either in terms of memory or emotional responsiveness. Many other gender differences including a larger size in the male have been proven inaccurate in a new study.

The meta-analytical study undertaken by researchers at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago collated the findings from 76 studies involving more than 6,000 people to arrive at the conclusion. The study was published in the journal Neuroimage.

Examining the hippocampi in male and female brains, the study found no major difference. This is the part of the brain responsible for memory and emotion.

Earlier studies have been contradicting. While one claimed the hippocampus to be larger in women in relative comparison to the whole brain, a Cambridge study in 2014 proclaimed the male brain the winner.

“Many people believe there is such a thing as a ‘male brain’ and a ‘female brain,'” said Lise Eliot, associate professor of neuroscience at Rosalind Franklin and the study’s lead author. “But when you look beyond the popularized studies—at collections of all the data—you often find that the differences are minimal.”

Research in the past has also found that female brains are on average 8% smaller than male brains. However, there has been no proven link between size and intelligence.

The latest study also refuted any difference in the way male and female brains understand their left and right hemispheres and process language. The researchers also discredit any size variation in the corpus callosum, the nerve tissue bundle that connects the two sides of the brain to communicate.

Any gender differences between the brains are “tiny” and more the result of environmental factors, Gina Rippon, a neuroscientist at Aston University in Birmingham,

Are moody individuals just very good at adapting?

    

Moody individuals who ride an emotional roller-coaster may be exhibiting a natural ability to adapt to change, experts claim.

According to a new theory, moodiness helps to reinforce our responses to positive or negative environmental factors.

If an experience makes us happy, we are going to seek more of it. In contrast, we are likely to avoid something unpleasant that brings us down. From the point of view of survival, both reactions are useful.

The psychologists behind the theory cite the example of unexpected gains on the stock market improving a city trader’s mood.

That positive feeling, enhanced if the trader is a moodier person, may then lead to more risk-taking and swift adaptation to a rising market.

Writing in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the team – led by Dr Eran Eldar, from University College London, concluded: “The ubiquity of moods and the extent of their impact on our lives tells us that, throughout the course of evolution, our moodiness must have conferred a significant competitive advantage.

“Being moody at times may be a small price to pay for the ability to adapt quickly when facing momentous environmental changes.”

At the same time, the scientists accepted that moodiness can be destructive.

For instance, a persistent negative mood might cause a person to perceive outcomes as worse than they really are, leading to a downward spiral.

Exploring the function of mood could lead to a better understanding of mood disorders, the researchers believe.

Dr Eldar added: “We think that this novel approach may help reveal what predisposes particular individuals to bipolar disorder and depression.”

Half the population of this endangered antelope has died off in a two-week period

Scientists are working to come up with an explanation for what has happened.

   

Scientists are struggling to explain why half of a particular species of antelope died off in a two-week period earlier this year.

The adult saiga antelopes, most of which reside on the plains of Kazakhstan, saw a population drop of at least 150,000.

The animal is regarded as extremely endangered and is known for its highly unusual appearance, with large protruding eyes and serrated tusks.

Its population numbers had previously undergone big dips, falling from 1.25 million in the mid-1970s to around 30,000 in 2003. The die-off this year happened in May, and scientists have been investigating since then.

Before it happened, it was estimated that there was around 250,000 to 320,000 of the animals in the world.

While it is unclear exactly what happened to cause the deaths, a number of theories have been advanced.

The Guardian is reporting that it may have been a bacteria called pasteurella that lies dormant in the throats of the animals could be to blame for the deaths – with an expert speculating that an unknown factor might have triggered its activity.

Kazakhstan activists have speculated that fuel from Russian rockets may be to blame.

It is thought that the repopulation of the animal may be difficult, as infrastructure investment in the countries it is native in has blocked a number of its migratory paths.

A UN-backed meeting at the end of last month saw an agreement between countries where the animal is native on taking measures to restore its population.   

Donie's Irish daily news update BLOG

Irish Brain drain as our educated young people are leaving for a bright new life abroad

 

UCC survey shows 62 per cent of emigrants aged 25 to 34 have a third-level qualification

Ireland is experiencing a “brain drain”, as the people currently leaving Ireland for a new life abroad are much more likely to have a higher level of education than the general population, a major survey on emigration has found.

The research, which will be published today at an international conference on “austerity emigration” in University College Cork, reveals that 62 per cent of emigrants aged 25 to 34 have a third-level qualification, compared to 47 per cent of Irish people in that age group overall.

Using data from the 2011 Census, researchers from the UCC Émigré project carried out door to door surveys of 2,500 households, while data was collected online from 1,500 Irish abroad and 500 intending emigrants attending jobsfairs. More than 60 emigrants were interviewed in-depth over Skype.

The final report claims to be “one of the most representative studies ever” of Irish emigration, providing a detailed profile of the age, gender, education, occupation and origin of Irish emigrants for the first time, as well as their experiences once they leave and intentions for the future.

Some 32 per cent of adults who responded to the household survey have had an immediate family member emigrate since 2006, while 44 per cent have had an extended family member leave. Almost 17 per cent of households have seen at least one member emigrate in the period.

Sparsely populated rural areas have been disproportionately affected, with 25 per cent of households losing a member to emigration. In commuter belt areas, where residents would be more likely have negative equity mortgages and young children, less than 11 per cent of households had experienced emigration.

Rural areas are also most likely to feel that emigration has impacted negatively on their community, with householders describing a loss of “vibrancy” associated with younger residents, lack of support for older community members, decimation of local sports teams and clubs, and reduced spending in the local economy.

Six in ten people have had a member of their circle of friends emigrate since 2006, rising to nine in ten among those aged 25 to 29.

Almost half of all emigrants left full-time jobs to emigrate, while one in eight worked part-time. Students, many of whom had just graduated, made up 15 per cent, while 23 per cent were unemployed.

Over 17 per cent of all emigrants had a background in construction, while 7 per cent were previously employed in manufacturing and engineering and 5 per cent in wholesale and retail. Teachers made up 5.4 per cent, while 9.5 per cent had a background in health or social work.

Of those employed full-time before departure, four in ten said they left because they wanted to travel and experience another culture, indicating that there is still a sizeable proportion of emigrants who are leaving by choice. They are likely to be professionals with qualifications in demand in other countries, especially in the areas of IT or health.

Professional insecurity and a lack of job satisfaction played a significant role in their decision to go, with the temporary nature of contracts, lack of opportunities for career advancement and low salaries commonly cited as reasons for leaving full-time employment.

Others cited a desire to find work or gain professional experience not available to them in Ireland, especially those previously working in an area unrelated to their qualifications or experience.

Students who emigrated after graduation said they had struggled to break into the labour market, where they faced unfair competition for fewer positions from more senior, experienced candidates who had lost jobs.

Three per cent of emigrants surveyed had children living in a different country, suggesting a considerable number of parents are taking up overseas positions to support a family still living in Ireland.

Although almost 40 per cent of recent emigrants would like to return to Ireland to live in the next three years, just 22 per cent see it as likely, though 82 per cent said improvements in the Irish economy would improve their likelihood ofreturning.

New Irish report says children should get two years of free pre-school

 

GOVERNMENT ADVISORY GROUP PROPOSES INCREASE IN INVESTMENT IN EARLY YEARS EDUCATION OF IRISH CHILDREN.

The report advises reviewing guidelines for pre-schools to ensure all children in early care and education services have access to outdoor spaces, either on site or in the local community.

The free pre-school scheme should be extended to allow children up to two years of care and education. That is one of a number of proposals contained in an expert advisory group report on the Government’s new early years strategy.

This blueprint will guide the development of children’s services over the next five years or so. At present, the terms of the free pre-school year mean some children do not begin the scheme until they are 4½ years old. It is also limited to a single year.

The expert group report says it should be opened to children of three years of age. This would allow children to benefit from up to two years of free pre-school, depending on when they start junior infants. It also advocates increasing investment in early care and education from 0.4 per cent of GDP to 0.7 per cent within the next five years.

The document notes that Government spending on early years care and education is below “acceptable levels” and that investing in young children’s health and education will ultimately save money for and result in a healthier and better educated workforce .

The report says that if Ireland“gets it right from the start” by adopting a comprehensive early years strategy, we will end up with a generation of children who are happier, healthier, safer and better able to cope with the adversity that life throws up. “It could break cycles of poverty and disadvantage and remove barriers of inequality. It could significantly reduce anti-social behaviour, dependency, and alienation. It could help to build a stronger economy,” it adds.

The expert advisory group was chaired by Dr Eilis Hennessy of UCD and included 15 members from a range of groups such as the HSE and Department of Education, along with children’s groups such as Early Childhood Ireland, Barnardos and Start Strong.

EARLY YEARS STRATEGY: KEY PROPOSALS

- Extend the entitlement to free pre-school provision, so that a free part-time place is available from every child’s third birthday until they enter primary school.

- Introduce the regulation and support of all paid, non-relative childminders.

- Increase investment in early care and education services, with investment rising to achieve the international benchmark of 1 per cent of GDP within 10 years.

- Give longer periods of paid parental leave for parents by incrementally extending leave at the end of the present period of paid maternity leave (six months) to a full year.

- Put public health nursing service at the core of a dedicated child health

workforce, including home visits to every child in the first year of life.

- Introduce a national parenting action plan aimed at making a range of universal and targeted supports available to parents.

- Review guidelines for pre-schools to ensure all children in early care and education services have access to outdoor spaces, either on site or in the local community.

- Introduce a national policy on access to pre-school special needs assistants, including guidelines on entitlements to such supports and on their role in early years and primary school provision.

Proposals contained in Report of the Expert Advisory Group on the Early Years Strategy to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. This document will feed into a Government blueprint to be published later this year

Social welfare and pensions safe in Irish budget, Joan Burton urges

  

The Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, said she is confident that neither weekly social welfare rates nor the bus pass will be hit in the budget.

Joan Burton has yet to have a formal meeting with the Public Expenditure Minister to discuss cuts, which could be as much as €440m for her department.

She insisted, however, that she has a tight control on spending and hopes to be able to leave certain welfare rates alone.

“I would be confident that we’ll be able to maintain our commitment … to protect core weekly social welfare rates, particularly, obviously for people who are retired and are on the retirement pension,” she said.

The top five fats for a healthy mind and body

  

Fat has become somewhat of a blacklisted word in the eyes of the grocery shopper. A leery eye is poised to locate and eliminate any product from consideration that has what they deem to be excess fat content.

While it may be true that the fats in labeled food products often contain the type we want to avoid, we have to be careful not to lump them in with these top five healthy fats, that are an essential requirement for a healthy body and mind.

Extra virgin coconut oil:   Coconut oil contains lauric acid, an important fatty acid that is also found abundantly in mothers’ milk, which also has a potent antiviral effect on the body. It is also excellent for the thyroid and does not raise cholesterol when consumed in a diet rich in essential fatty acids.

An also very important note is that anyone suffering from candidiasis can benefit greatly from the caprylic acid in coconut oil because of its potent antifungal properties.

Fish oil:   Many of the benefits of fish oil are due to the presence of omega-3 essential fatty acids like DHA and EPA. Other useful essential fatty acids in fish oil include alpha-linolenic acid and gamma-linolenic acid.

According to the American Heat Association, clinical trials have shown that omega-3′s are effective in reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease. This is one reason why fish oil has been attributed to a reduced risk of heart disease.

Fish oil is also known as an effective anti-inflammatory and natural antidepressant and protects against Alzheimer’s and ADHD.  Ensure you get a pure form of fish oil, free of mercury and other contaminants.

Hemp oil:   One of the most beneficial components of hemp is its full range of amino acids as well as being a perfectly balanced source of Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s), making it one of the very few plant based complete protein sources.

EFA’s include the optimal ratio of omega-3′s and omega-6′s, which helps maintain a healthy immune system and is responsible for healthy looking skin, hair and nails. The exceptional concentration of EFA’s in hemp, is also known for its role in preventing heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer, arthritis and much more.

It’s also important to keep in mind that EFA’s are indispensable for function and development of the brain and nervous system and the production of healthy cell membranes.

Avocados:  Avocados are rich in monounsaturated fats, and can contain up to 22 grams of fat in a medium sized fruit.  They also provide up to 20 essential health boosting nutrients, including fiber, potassium, vitamin E, B vitamins and folic acid.

Avocados are one of the safest fruits to purchase conventionally grown, as the thick skin protects it from the already lower level of pesticide exposure it receives.

Avocados have plenty of other benefits, including anti-inflammatory properties, increased fat-soluble nutrient absorption (such as beta carotene and lutein), improved lipid profiles and inhibiting and destroying oral cancer cells.

Walnuts:   Walnuts not only taste great but are also a rich source of monounsaturated fats. One quarter cup serving can deliver up to 95% of your Recommended Dietary Allowance of omega-3 fats.

Walnuts have been studied and promoted for their cardiovascular benefits, anticancer properties, anti-inflammatory effects and brain health properties.  Eat walnuts on their own, in salads or a vegetable dish or with fruit.

Bombs from the above & the threat of meteorites

   

An asteroid 10km in diameter wiped out the dinosaurs and extinguished life on Earth. The scientific community is working to avoid a repeat

A meteorite trail is seen above a residential apartment block in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, on February 15th. A heavy meteor shower rained down on central Russia, sowing panic as the hurtling space debris mashed windows and injured dozens of stunned locals.

Astronomer Alan Fitzsimmons has a lot on his mind. He is interested in our solar system, but also in how to save planet Earth. The Queen’s University Belfast scientist studies how to deflect space rocks on a collision course with our planet, as part of NeoShield, a European-funded project. One option is to nuke an incoming asteroid, another to ram it.

Extra impetus arrived on February 15th when an asteroid exploded over central Russia, producing a blast 30 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. The Chelyabinsk meteor had travelled 18km per second, before disintegrating at high altitude. About 1,600 people were injured in the sparsely populated area and thousands of buildings damaged.

It was a small asteroid, Fitzsimmon’s says, about the size of a bus. “An object that small [20m wide] will not make it to Earth’s surface, but will explode at altitude,” he says. By coincidence, hours later a 20m by 40m asteroid whizzed by Earth, closer to us than our communication satellites, but it was predicted. Chelyabinsk arrived unannounced.

“We still miss these small asteroids all the time, even with our sophisticated telescopes,” says Fitzsimmons, who uses a telescope in Hawaii to survey for danger in another project, Pan-Starrs. Once a minute, a 1.4 billion-pixel image of part of the sky is recorded and then analysed for comets and asteroids that may be winging our way. It detected the 10,000th “near-Earth object” early this June. Cataloguing these is a priority for Nasa too.

Don Yeomans of Nasa’s near-Earth object programme says 90 per cent of objects over a kilometre across have been identified, and Nasa is now focusing on those more than 130m. After following them for a few years, scientists can work out their orbit and do impact probability calculations, often for a hundred years into the future.

“A one-kilometre object gives you a global catastrophe,” Fitzsimmons warns. “An object 40m to 70m across would cause major damage locally, with the severity depending on the exact velocity, size and composition.”

Anything greater than 30m across will likely strike Earth’s surface, but damage potential is still under investigation.

“To better predict the hazards of future impacts, we need to know how much damage objects of different sizes and types of material produced,” says David Kring, an impact expert at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. “Chelyabinsk is providing the first high-precision calibration point on the curve that relates impact energy to surface damage.”

Russian roulette: The Russian fireball was a weak stony asteroid called a chondrite; one fragment knocked an eight-metre hole in the ice of Chebarkul Lake. Experts say a 20m object enters Earth’s atmosphere about once a century on average, so it was a rare event. Chances are it wouldn’t hit a city.

Impressive impact craters in Canada and South Africa stretch almost 200km across, but the most famous lies under the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. “The Chicxulub impact event, which wiped out the dinosaurs and extinguished life on Earth, was produced by an asteroid about 10km in diameter,” says Kring. “It is much more difficult for such a large object to go undetected, but not impossible. The scientific community is working hard to detect all objects that size, to minimise that risk.”

A rock this size equals catastrophe. The Chicxulub blast laid down a tell-tale layer of iridium-rich dust spread across the globe, a clue to its force. “That asteroid would have come in at around 20km a second, and something that size would have no chance of being slowed down by the atmosphere. It would have penetrated way down into the crust, where all that kinetic energy was converted instantly to heat. The rock would have simply exploded and vaporised, giving a hot dusty atmosphere,” says Ian Sanders, a meteorite geologist in Trinity College.

The PCC report: global warming is ‘unequivocal’  

Man’s influence on climate change is “clear”, according to the latest IPCC report which states that global warming is “unequivocal”

The new assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that it is “extremely likely” humans have been the principal cause of warming since the 1950s.

Without making “substantial and sustained reductions” of greenhouse gas emissions, the world can expect an increase of extreme weather including heatwaves and heavy rainfall.

Three out of four future climate change scenarios, based on projected levels of gas and aerosol emissions, suggest that by the end of this century global temperatures are likely to reach 1.5C higher than pre-industrial levels.

In the two highest of the four scenarios, warming by 2100 is expected to exceed 2C, the benchmark after which there are likely to be dangerous effects on the planet.

The effects of climate change will continue for several hundred years even if emissions of carbon dioxide stop, the report states.

Scientists and politicians from 195 countries have been working late into the night all week to finalise details of the document.

In an official statement issued to press on Friday morning, the panel said: “Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident in most regions of the globe.

“It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. The evidence for this has grown.”

Warming in the climate system is “unequivocal” and changes seen since the mid 20th century have been “unprecdented over decades to millenia”, they added.

The discussions, which took place at a brewery-turned-conference facility in central Stockholm were frustratingly slow but there is understood to have been little of the infighting between nations that has characterised past meetings.

One delegate told the Telegraph on Thursday night: “The good news is that the Saudis are not objecting to every word like used to happen [at previous meetings].

“It is pretty tame compared to the early years of the IPCC when you used to have a real scrum between people like the Chinese, who could be quite difficult. There is no-one in there saying climate change isn’t real.”

The summary for policymakers is a condensed version of a much larger report running to thousands of pages, which will be released on Monday.

It states that the atmosphere and oceans have become warmer, with the oceans absorbing more than 90 per cent of the extra heat energy accumulated between 1971 and 2010.

In fact, many scientists believe that warming of the deep oceans, on which data is still uncertain, has been masking climate change at the surface. This could explain why atmospheric temperatures have barely changed in the past 15 years during the so-called “pause”, they say.

Political delegates from the UK and other leading countries such as the US and Brazil are understood to have pushed hard for the report to make explicitly clear that the comparative lack of warming during the past decade and a half does not mean climate change has stopped.

Sir Mark Walport, the Government chief scientific adviser, said the challenge for scientists in overcoming scepticism about man-made climate change was one of “communication.”

He told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “Scientists have got to communicate this. There are some people that don’t want to confront the policy decisions and they say ‘the easiest way we can do this is rubbish the science.’ They can’t do this, it’s absolutely robust.”

The summary states: “Due to natural variability, trends based on short records are very sensitive to the beginning and end dates and do not in general reflect long-term climate trends. As one example, the rate of warming over the past 15 years, which begins with a strong El Nino, is smaller than the rate calculated since 1951.”

The report makes clear that each of the past three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850, and that 1983-2012 was likely the warmest 30-year period of the past 1,400 years.

Concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere have reached levels unprecedented in the past 800,000 years, including a 40 per cent increase since pre-industrial times.

The report also states that sea levels have risen by 19cm since 1901, and that they will continue to rise during this century as surface temperature rises and the Arctic sea ice continues to shrink and thin and glaciers around the world recede.

The oceans are also set to become more acidic as they absorb more carbon.

Qin Dahe, co-chair of the working group, said: “Our assessment of the science finds that the atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amount of snow and ice has diminished, the global mean sea level has risen and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased.

“As the ocean warms, and glaciers and ice sheets reduce, global mean sea level will continue to rise, but at a faster rate than we have experienced over the past 40 years.”

Thomas Stocker, the other co-chair of the group, added: “Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all components of the climate system. Limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gases.

“Heatwaves are very likely to occur more frequently and last longer. As the Earth warms, we expect to see currently wet regions receiving more rainfall, and dry regions receiving less, although there will be exceptions.

“As a result of our past, present and expected future emissions of CO2, we are committed to climate change, and effects will persist for many centuries even if emissions stop.”

Ed Davey, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said solutions to the problem of man-made greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere “must be set in motion today.”

He said: “The risks and costs of doing nothing today are so great, only a deeply irresponsible government would be so negligent.

“Without urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions this warming will continue, with potentially dangerous impacts upon our societies and economy.”

The report strengthened the case for international leaders to work for an “ambitious, legally binding global agreement” in 2015 to cut carbon emissions, he added, thanking the scientists behind it for making clear “what is at stake if we don’t act.”