Emissions cuts, sustainable
development and early measures to adapt
could reduce humanity’s vulnerability
Brussels, 6 April 2007 – The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has finalized
a new report that assesses the current and
future impacts of global warming and explores
opportunities for proactively adapting to
them.
The report concludes that the world’s rivers,
lakes, wildlife, glaciers, permafrost, coastal
zones, disease carriers and many other elements
of the natural and physical environment
are already responding to the effects of
humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Rising temperatures are accelerating the
hydrological cycle and causing rivers and
lakes to freeze later in the autumn and
birds to migrate and nest earlier in the
spring.
Scientists are increasingly confident that,
as global warming continues, certain weather
events and extremes will become more frequent,
widespread or intense.
Over the coming decades, the Arctic, sub-Saharan
Africa, small island states, low-lying coasts,
natural ecosystems and water resources and
agricultural production in certain regions
will be at particular risk.
Dramatic sea-level rises and some other
events have the potential to cause very
large impacts, especially after the 21st
century.
However, the IPCC also finds that early
action to improve seasonal climate forecasts,
food security, freshwater supplies, disaster
and emergency response, famine early-warning
systems and insurance coverage can minimize
the damage from future climate change while
generating many immediate practical benefits.
“Scientists owe much of their new understanding
of how climate change will affect the planet
to the greater number of field studies and
data sets now available to them, as well
as to improved consistency between observations
and climate model results,” said Michel
Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO).
“We need to strengthen our research and
monitoring even further and gain more practical
experience in how best to adapt to our new
climate,” he said.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the
UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said, “The
invoice for the future impact costs of climate
change has been put on the table today by
the IPCC. It is not a bill that we would
have to pay in full if the world decides
now to make deep and decisive cuts in greenhouse
gas emissions.”
“The report also emphasizes that adaptation
– in developed but especially vulnerable
developing countries – is also needed to
cope with the climate change already underway.
‘Climate proofing’ infrastructure and agriculture
to health care services and communities
will require investment but equally intelligent
planning so that it is central to decision-making
rather than on the periphery,” he added.
The IPCC illustrates the potential for
adaptation by describing activities being
undertaken in various parts of the world
to adapt to current climate change.
Examples include partial drainage of the
Tsho Rolpa glacial lake in Nepal, changes
in livelihood strategies in response to
permafrost melt by the Inuit in Nunavut,
Canada, and the increased use of artificial
snow-making by the ski industry in Europe,
Australia and North America.
Measures being taken in anticipation of
future climate change include the consideration
of sea-level rise in the design of infrastructure
such as the Confederation Bridge in Canada
and in coastal zone management in the USA
and The Netherlands.
The Summary for Policymakers for IPCC Working
Group II has now been posted in English
at www.ipcc.ch. The chapters in the full
underlying report, “Climate Change 2007:
Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”,
will be posted as PDFs in the next several
days and will then be published by Cambridge
University Press.
Note to journalists: For more information,
please see www.ipcc.ch, www.wmo.int or www.unep.org,
or contact:
UNEP – Michael Williams
Photo: UNEP
