What causes climate change? It’s not the sun, climate scientists conclude in a new study published in Nature GeoScience.

In fact, researchers found that the key drivers of climate change in the northern hemisphere for the past 1,000 years were volcanic eruptions and greenhouse gases.

“Until now, the influence of the sun on past climate has been poorly understood,” Dr. Andrew Schurer, University of Edinburg’s School of GeoScience said in a news release. “I hope that our new discoveries will help improve our understanding of how temperatures have changed over the past few centuries and improve predictions for how they might develop in the future. Links between the sun and anomalously cold winters in the UK are still being explored.”

The scientists at University of Edinburgh carefully scrutinized temperature records since 1000 A.D. using data from tree rings, coral reefs and other historical records, comparing the information with past climate models and variation in heat from the sun.

It’s hoped that the study will help understand and improve weather forecasting. The study was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Dr. Schurer told Planet Earth Online  that, “People have been suggesting that we’re about to go into a solar minimum, where the sun weakens and cools the climate. But our analysis shows that, over the past 1000 years, variations in the sun’s output have actually had very little influence over Northern Hemisphere temperatures, and we would expect that to continue into the near future.

He adds however that he’s not saying that the sun never had an influence on the climate, just that for the past 1,000 years, volcanic eruptions and greenhouse gases have been the dominant factors driving climate change.

Volcanic eruptions, which heavily affected climate change up to 1800, prevent sunlight from reaching the Earth’s surface, leading to cooler, drier weather. Afterward, since 1900, it was greenhouse gases that were a driving factor of climate change.

Dr. Schurer’s earlier comment regarding the link between cold winters in the UK and sun activity is a reference to an earlier study led by Dr. Adam Scaife, of UK’s Met Office. Dr. Scaife’s study was also published in Nature GeoScience and found that there was a link between the sun’s 11-year cycle and the frigid winters in the UK.

“Our research establishes the link between the solar cycle and winter climate as more than just coincidence,” Dr. Scaife told the Planet Earth Online in 2011.