On Thursday, leading global experts from the natural and social sciences presented the annual New Insights in Climate Science to the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27) in Sharm EL Sheikh.
The essential insights on climate change presents key insights from the latest climate change-related research this year and responds to clear calls for policy guidance during this critical decade.
The report was launched by the international networks Future Earth, The Earth League and World Climate Research Programme (WCRP).
In his address at press conference, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said: “Science provides the evidence and data on the impacts of climate change, but it also gives us the tools and knowledge as how we need to address it.
He continued: "As the Egyptian COP27 Presidency has made it very clear, we are now clearly in the era of implementation, and that means action. But none of this can happen without data, without evidence to inform decisions, or the science that supports programs and policies.”
In the scientific report, scientists from around the world emphasize and unpack the complex interactions between climate change and other drivers of risk, such as conflicts, pandemics, food crises and underlying development challenges.
The scientists find that the potential to adapt to climate change is not limitless.
Rising sea levels capable of submerging coastal communities and extreme heat intolerable to the human body, are examples of ‘hard’ limits to our ability to adapt. They also highlight that over 3 billion people will inhabit ‘vulnerability hotspots’ - areas with the highest susceptibility to being adversely affected by climate-driven hazards - by 2050, double what it is today.
“Adaptation alone cannot keep up with the impacts of climate change, which are already worse than predicted,” Stiell said.
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