The IPCC’s latest report on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability delivers “a dire warning about the consequences of inaction” in the face of the climate emergency.

T here is no turning back – the world is already facing the devastating consequences of climate change and any further delay in global action will slam shut a narrowing window of opportunity to keep the planet from becoming unliveable, warned scientists in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC, the world’s leading body of climate researchers, released a new report on 28th February that delivers “a dire warning about the consequences of inaction” in the face of the climate emergency. Not only is the world going to experience increased heat waves, droughts and flooding, but if temperatures continue to rise and global warming exceeds the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius set at COP26, heat could become life-threatening and there will be irreversible consequences. Species will become extinct, people will suffer, glaciers will melt, and ecosystems will collapse.

Some climate hazards and disasters are already occurring simultaneously, and their cascading impacts are more and more difficult to manage. For instance, in 2020, more than 50 million people were affected by climate-related disasters. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the world that year too, posing significant challenges to climate disaster management.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres referred to this report, produced by 270 researchers in 67 countries, as an “atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”

While the report, which is the second in a series of three IPCC reviews, may not do much to relieve eco-anxiety, it offers a global ultimatum, shining a light on the possibilities that still remain to avoid the worst. According to IPCC scientists, we must accelerate efforts to adapt to the changing climate, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions.

To understand the critical nature of this call to action and the challenging path that lies ahead, at the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), the only international organization dedicated entirely to climate adaptation, we have compiled a list of five things you need to know about the IPCC report – and what we are and should be doing about it.
1. Climate change is not a future threat, it is happening now. We must act and adapt.

The IPCC report points out that roughly half of the world’s population already experiences severe water scarcity at least part of the year. Food is also scarce, particularly in the world’s most vulnerable regions and this can hinder progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Climate change has also triggered massive displacement in vulnerable parts of the world, for instance, in some regions in Africa.

2. For climate change, the impacts are not borne equally. Africa is especially vulnerable.

While climate change is going to affect every corner of the world, it is going to hit certain vulnerable regions much harder, according to IPCC scientists – and of all regions, the climate emergency is hitting Africa especially hard.

In spite of its negligible carbon emissions, Africa remains the most vulnerable continent to climate change. From 1991 to 2020 there were about 50 reported disasters per year across Africa, with floods contributing to two out of three events. The number of floods in Africa has increased five-fold since the 1990s, according to GCA’s latest State and Trends Report.

The Covid-19 pandemic worsened Africa’s situation and plunged the continent into its first recession in 25 years. Africa’s GDP losses could amount to as much as $500 billion and economic growth will be slowed for years to come.

The world’s women and youth bear the brunt of the climate emergency. In Africa, after Cyclone Idai struck Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in 2019, 75,000 pregnant women were left without reproductive health services, sanitation and clean water.

Climate disasters often impact young people’s education, and the Covid-19 crisis alone has caused the greatest global education crisis in a century.

GCA focuses its work on the world’s most vulnerable communities and its largest program, the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) aims to scale up adaptation in the African continent. GCA is also expanding its adaptation support to South Asia and Small Island Developing States.