By Jeff Tollefson
February 28, 2022
Source: Nature
Photo / Image Source: Unsplash, Wolfgang Hasselmann
Latest IPCC climate report warns that rising greenhouse-gas emissions could soon outstrip the ability of many communities to adapt.
The negative impacts of climate change are mounting far faster than scientists predicted less than a decade ago, according to the latest report from a United Nations climate panel. Many impacts are unavoidable and will hit the world’s most vulnerable populations hardest, it warns — but collective action from governments to both curb greenhouse-gas emissions and to prepare communities to live with global warming could yet avert the worst outcomes.
“The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal,” says Maarten van Aalst, a climate scientist who heads the Red Cross Red Crescent’s Climate Centre in Enschede, the Netherlands, and an author on the report. “Any further delay in global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.” The report, released on 28 February, is the second installment of the latest climate assessment from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Issued last August, the IPCC’s first report focused on recent climate science, while this report focuses on the impacts of climate change on people and ecosystems. It will be followed by a third installment in early April that evaluates humanity’s options for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. This is the sixth such assessment from the IPCC in three decades, and the warnings have only become more dire. Advocates hope this latest assessment will finally spur governments to decisively tackle the climate crisis.
“I've seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this,” UN secretary-general António Guterres said during a press conference unveiling the report. It is a “damning indictment of failed climate leadership”, he added.
Key points from the report: • About 3.3–3.6 billion people — more than 40% of the world’s population — live in places on Earth and in situations that are “highly vulnerable to climate change”, the report estimates. Some are already experiencing the effects of climate change, which vary by region and are driven by factors such as geography, how that region is governed and its socioeconomic status. The report also references for the first time “historical and ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism” that contribute to many regions’ vulnerability to climate change. • Although additional finance and planning could help many communities better prepare for climate change, “hard limits” to humanity’s ability to adapt to climate change are approaching if temperatures continue to rise, the report says. For instance, coastal communities can temporarily buffer themselves from extreme storms by restoring coral reefs, mangroves and wetlands, but rising seas will eventually overwhelm such efforts, resulting in coastal erosion, flooding and loss of freshwater resources.
• Climate change has already caused death and suffering across the world, and it will continue to do so. In addition to contributing to mortalities by helping to trigger disasters such as fires and heat waves, it has affected public health in various ways. Smoke inhalation from fires has contributed to cardiovascular and respiratory problems, for instance, while increased rainfall and flooding has led to the spread of diseases such as dengue and cholera.
• If global temperatures rise more than 1.5 °C above preindustrial temperatures, some environmental changes could become irreversible, depending on the magnitude and duration of the ‘overshoot’ beyond this threshold. In forests and arctic permafrost zones that act as carbon dioxide reservoirs, for instance, extreme global warming could lead to the release of excess carbon emissions, which would in turn drive further warming — a self-perpetuating cycle.
• Sustainable economic development must include protection for biodiversity and natural ecosystems, which secure resources such as freshwater and coastlines that are protective against storms, the report says. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that maintaining the resilience of biodiversity and ecosystems as the climate warms will depend on “effective and equitable conservation of approximately 30% to 50% of Earth’s land, freshwater and ocean areas”.
More than 270 researchers from 67 countries authored the latest IPCC report. Here’s what some are saying about its importance: Adelle Thomas, a geographer at the University of the Bahamas in Nassau. The most important message coming from the report from my perspective is that losses and damages are widespread and being felt now. Unfortunately, these negative impacts of climate change are disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable communities around the world. Also critical is evidence showing that people and ecosystems are already reaching limits to adaptation, where they have surpassed their capacities to prevent negative impacts of climate change.
As a scientist from The Bahamas, one of the low-lying coastal countries that are at high risk to climate change, I hope that this report encourages policymakers to limit warming to 1.5 °C, urgently ramp up adaptation and address loss and damage. Edwin Castellanos, director of the Sustainable Economic Observatory at the University of the Valley of Guatemala in Guatemala City. This report combines two messages, one of urgency and one of hope: urgency to act, not only to drastically reduce emissions in the near term … but to increase our actions to adapt to the impacts already observed and to come. And there is hope from knowing that we are still in time to take these actions.
My hope is that this report will highlight the need for developed countries to support developing countries, particularly with financial resources to reduce the vulnerability of people, particularly those at higher risk: the poor and Indigenous peoples.
Sarah Cooley, director of climate science at the Ocean Conservancy, a conservation group based in Washington DC. This report assesses how local communities are rising to the challenge [of climate change] and have become leaders on climate adaptation and climate planning. It evaluates the climate adaptations that communities have already tried, and it identifies the features of successful, equitable activities, as well as opportunities for even bigger changes.
It also confirms that any more delay in climate action is going to close off opportunities to head off the worst impacts of climate. But the good news is, there are more details than ever about how the global community can meet the challenge effectively, despite our slow start.
Ibidun Adelekan, a geographer at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. The report underscores the fact that the capacity of individuals and local communities to cope and adapt to the risks from climate change is very limited without adaptation planning efforts supported by governments. There is need for collaboration among citizens, scientists, the private sector and policymakers to develop feasible adaptation plans, through the integration of different knowledge systems — including local and Indigenous knowledge.
Rawshan Ara Begum, an economist from Bangladesh who studies sustainable development at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. This report provides a range of climate adaptation options for reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience. As a citizen of a vulnerable country, I have hopes that global leaders [will take] urgent, accelerated action to adapt to climate change, while making rapid, deep cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions.
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world due to climate change and sea level rise. This will further worsen the country’s current challenges, including extreme poverty, income inequality, economic and non-economic losses and damages and low adaptive capacity. Urgent and accelerated action is required.
When should we address climate change? Why/ How can climate change impact your health?
Share the wealth of health with your friends and family by sharing this article with 3 people today.
If this article was helpful to you, donate to the Shidonna Raven Garden and Cook E-Magazine Today. Thank you in advance.