A United Nation’s climate science panel warned that climate change has already cut into the global food supply, fuelling wars and natural disasters, but governments are unprepared to protect those most at risk.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finalised a report on the impacts of climate change on human and natural systems and possible methods of adaptation during the five-day conference in Yokohama, Japan.
Rajendra Pachauri, the Chairman of the IPCC, said on Monday that nobody on the planet would be untouched by the impacts of climate change.
“The risks from climate change are high to very high, if temperatures increase over four degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, where the world is now heading, if temperatures rise between one to two degrees Celsius, risks increase disproportionately,” he said.
“One thing that we have come up with is the importance of adaptation and mitigation choices because this is the only way we might be able to reduce risks of climate change,” he added.
Virginia Burkett, Chief Scientist, Global Change, US Geological Survey and one of the report’s authors, said there was enough evidence to say for certain that climate change was affecting food production on land and sea.
She said the rate of increase in crop yields was slowing, especially in wheat, thereby raising doubts as to whether food production would keep up with the demand of a growing population.
“Changes in temperature and rainfall patterns could lead to food price rises of between three per cent and 84 per cent by 2050,” she said.
“It’s more relevant to the man on the street. It’s more relevant to communities because the impacts are directly affecting people and not just butterflies and sea ice.”
Vicente Barros, co-chair of the working group in charge of drawing up the latest report, said: “We live in an era of man-made climate change.”
Barros said climate change was a growing threat to human security as it causes damage to homes and property, disrupts access to food and water and leads to forced migration.
Barros said it was so unfortunate that in many cases, “we are not prepared for the climate related risks that we already face”.
Chris Field, co-chair of the working group, said adaptation to reduce such risks was starting to take place, but with a stronger focus on reacting to past events than on preparing for a changing future.
Field said: “Governments, firms and communities around the world are building experience with adaptation.
“This experience forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be important as climate and society continue to change.”
Kaisa Kosonen, Greenpeace International official, said: “We’re walking a tightrope, but if we act boldly and cut climate pollution faster, major threats to human security can still be avoided and vital ocean systems, forests and species protected.”
Samantha Smith of the World Wide Fund for Nature campaign group, said the report made it clear that we still have time to act.
Smith said henceforth we could limit climate instability and adapt to some of the changes we see now, but without immediate and specific action, we are in danger of going far beyond the limits of adaptation.
In September, the IPCC warned that humans were primarily responsible for global warming, which has led to a faster-than-predicted rise in sea levels, rapidly melting glaciers and ice sheets.
A third report, which would focus on mitigation of climate change, was due for release in April in Berlin.
dpa/NAN.
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