Floods, droughts and heat waves herald a changing climate
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UNCCD Library
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Web resource
The world's climate is changing. The cause is well understood: emissions of greenhouse gases resulting from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels for heat, electricity and transportation; industrial processes; and changes in land use.
Climate change threatens to undermine progress in nearly every area of human development. It poses substantial risks to food production, water supplies, ecosystems, energy security, and infrastructure. By 2050 more than 140 million people may be forced to migrate within national borders in order to avoid its worst effects.
SDG 13 seeks to combat climate change and address its impacts. SDG target 13.1 specifically aims to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters. Such events represent the leading edge of climate change. Their frequency and intensity are increasing.
The current global population is around 7.8 billion. By 2030 it will be around 8.5 billion. Everyone will experience the effects of climate change. But the effects will not be felt equally.
From 2010 to 2019 more than 1.3 billion people were affected seriously enough by extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and cold waves to require emergency assistance.
Over that period floods and droughts were responsible for the greatest human impacts.
Climate change is expected to further increase the frequency and intensity of these events.
Extreme weather events like these disproportionately affect people living in lower-middle-income and low-income countries.
For example, in the last decade alone droughts and floods have affected an estimated 338 million people in India and 383 million people in China.
Lower income countries are not only more vulnerable to adverse climate change impacts than higher income countries, but also less equipped to deal with them.
This stark contrast is clearly reflected in the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative index, depicted here. Countries with low scores are both more vulnerable to climate change and less ready to adapt to it.
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Climate change threatens to undermine progress in nearly every area of human development. It poses substantial risks to food production, water supplies, ecosystems, energy security, and infrastructure. By 2050 more than 140 million people may be forced to migrate within national borders in order to avoid its worst effects.
SDG 13 seeks to combat climate change and address its impacts. SDG target 13.1 specifically aims to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters. Such events represent the leading edge of climate change. Their frequency and intensity are increasing.
The current global population is around 7.8 billion. By 2030 it will be around 8.5 billion. Everyone will experience the effects of climate change. But the effects will not be felt equally.
From 2010 to 2019 more than 1.3 billion people were affected seriously enough by extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and cold waves to require emergency assistance.
Over that period floods and droughts were responsible for the greatest human impacts.
Climate change is expected to further increase the frequency and intensity of these events.
Extreme weather events like these disproportionately affect people living in lower-middle-income and low-income countries.
For example, in the last decade alone droughts and floods have affected an estimated 338 million people in India and 383 million people in China.
Lower income countries are not only more vulnerable to adverse climate change impacts than higher income countries, but also less equipped to deal with them.
This stark contrast is clearly reflected in the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative index, depicted here. Countries with low scores are both more vulnerable to climate change and less ready to adapt to it.
read further from the source above
Keywords
climate change
hazard impacts
drought
floods
population growth
health impacts