Although the time scale of climate change is very long, the time scale of climate policymaking is by necessity much shorter. This report connects long term protection of climate with near term global policy action, with the aim to support current climate negotiations. This is accomplished by using results from a computer model (IMAGE 2) to identify a 'Safe Emissions Corridor'. This corridor shows the allowable range of near term global emissions from 1990 to 2010 that complies with specified short and long term (2010 to 2100) climate goals (used here to mean limits on climate indicators). The corridor also takes into account restrictions on the maximum rates of emission reductions.