Climate Change can be a natural process where temperature, rainfall, wind and other elements vary over decades or more. In millions of years, our world has been warmer and colder than it is now. But today we are experiencing rapid warming from human activities, primarily due to burning fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gas emissions.
Increasing greenhouse gas emissions from human activity act like a blanket wrapped around the earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.
Greenhouse gas concentrations are at their highest levels in 2 million years and continue to rise. As a result, the earth is about 1.1°C warmer than it was in the 1800s. The last decade was the warmest on record.
The consequences of climate change now include, among others, intense droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.
Climate Change affects our health, ability to grow food, housing, safety and work. Some of us are already more vulnerable to climate impacts. Conditions like sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion have advanced to the point where whole communities have had to relocate.
The Earth is now about 1.1°C warmer than it was in the 1800s. We are not on track to meet the Paris Agreement target to keep global temperature from exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. That is considered the upper limit to avoid the worst fallout from climate change.
2015-2019 saw the five warmest years on record.
2010-2019 was the warmest decade on record.
Global surface temperature has increased faster since 1970 than
in any other 50- year period over at least the last 2000 years.
Since the mid-1980s, Arctic surface air temperatures have warmed at least twice as fast as the global average, while sea ice, the Greenland ice sheet and glaciers have declined over the same period.
In 2019, greenhouse gas concentrations reached new highs. Carbon dioxide levels were 148 per cent of preindustrial levels. Greenhouse gas concentrations, already at their highest levels in 2 million years, have continued to rise.
To follow a 1.5°C-consistent pathway, the world will need to decrease fossil fuel production by roughly 6 per cent per year between 2020 and 2030. Countries are instead planning and projecting an average annual increase of 2 per cent, which by 2030 would result in more than double the production consistent with the 1.5°C limit.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a record 260 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity was added globally in 2020, beating the previous record by almost 50 per cent.
Renewables grew almost 5 per cent per year between 2009 and 2019, outpacing fossil fuels at 1.7 per cent.
In 2018, the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption amounted to 17.1 per cent, with the largest increase in the share of renewables for electricity. The transport and heating sectors show much slower or no progress.
More than 80 per cent of all new electricity capacity added in 2020 was renewable with solar and wind accounting for 91 per cent. Investment in offshore wind hit its highest level ever at $29.9 billion.
More than half of the renewable capacity added in 2019 achieved lower electricity costs than new coal. New solar and wind projects are undercutting the cheapest existing coal-fired plants.
Climate action is not a budget buster or economy-wrecker. Shifting to a green economy could yield a direct economic gain of $26 trillion through 2030 compared with business-as-usual. This could produce over 65 million new low-carbon jobs.
Investing in resilient infrastructure in developing countries could deliver $4.2 trillion over its lifetime. An investment of $1 in resilient infrastructure, on average, yields $4 in benefits.
Sustainable agriculture and strong forest protection could generate over $2 trillion per year of economic benefits, create millions of jobs and improve food security, while delivering over a third of the climate change solution.
Doubling global renewable energy capacity by 2030 could save the global economy between $1.2 and $4.2 trillion each year, largely due to a massive reduction in costs from pollution.
A green transition, including a shift to renewable energy, the manufacturing of electric vehicles and construction of energy-efficient buildings, will create 24 million jobs by 2030, far more than the 6 million that could be lost.
Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. The impacts are already harming health through air pollution, disease, extreme weather events, forced displacement, food insecurity and pressures on mental health. Every year, environmental factors take the lives of around 13 million people.
The value of health gains from reducing carbon emissions would be approximately double the global cost of implementing carbon mitigation measures.
Over 90 per cent of people breathe unhealthy levels of air pollution, largely resulting from burning fossil fuels driving climate change. In 2018, air pollution from fossil fuels caused $2.9 trillion in health and economic costs, about $8 billion a day.
Transportation produces around 20 per cent of global carbon emissions. Alternatives like walking and cycling are not only green but also offer major health benefits, such as reducing the risk of many chronic health conditions and improving mental health.
Systems to produce, package and distribute food generate a third of greenhouse gas emissions. More sustainable production would mitigate climate impacts and support more nutritious diets that could prevent close to 11 million premature deaths a year.
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