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One of the top climate scientists in the world suggests Alberta's oilsands should not be the focus of concern about global warming.

Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria says the oilsands aren't likely to make much of a difference — he says the real threat is burning coal.

Weaver has been a lead author on two reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In a commentary published in the journal Nature, Weaver and a colleague analyze how burning all global stocks of coal, oil and natural gas would affect temperatures.

They found that if all the hydrocarbons in the oilsands were mined and consumed, the carbon dioxide released would raise global temperatures by about point-36 degrees Celcius.

That's about half the total amount of warming over the last century.

When only commercially viable oilsands deposits are considered, the temperature increase is only point-zero-three degrees Celcius.

But the paper says burning all the globe's vast coal deposits would create a 15-degree increase in temperature.