Later in the century, if greenhouse gas emissions are at the high end of predictions, they could force up temperatures by 0.3 to seven degrees C (0.5-13 degrees F).

"The estimate we are producing over the next 20 to 30 years is very much in line with previous estimates," said Peter Stott of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Britain.

His analysis, which is reported in the science journal Nature, is based on an atmosphere-ocean global climate model, but it is in line with results of a study by Thomas Stocker and scientists at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

They used a different climate model which estimated a 0.5-1.1 degree C increase over the next three decades.

"What we're providing are uncertainty estimates of future climate change that can be used by planners and policy makers. We're providing information that people can use in the form of a distribution of the likely temperature changes," Stott added in an interview.

In a commentary on the research, Francis Zwiers of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis in British Columbia said the studies in the journal produce a consistent picture of future climate change.

"For the near term, projections made by different models with different emission scenarios produce remarkably similar results on the global scale," he said.