Stories

SDG of the week: Climate action

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

30.03.2020.

There is no country that is not experiencing the drastic effects of climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions are more than 50 percent higher than in 1990. Global warming is
causing long-lasting changes to our climate system, which threatens irreversible
consequences if we do not act.
The annual average economic losses from climate-related disasters are in the hundreds of
billions of dollars. This is not to mention the human impact of geophysical disasters, which
are 91 percent climate-related, and which between 1998 and 2017 killed 1.3 million people,
and left 4.4 billion injured. The goal aims to mobilize US$100 billion annually by 2020 to
address the needs of developing countries to both adapt to climate change and invest in
low-carbon development.
Supporting vulnerable regions will directly contribute not only to Goal 13 but also to the
other SDGs. These actions must also go hand in hand with efforts to integrate disaster risk
measures, sustainable natural resource management, and human security into national
development strategies. It is still possible, with strong political will, increased investment,
and using existing technology, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two
degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, aiming at 1.5°C, but this requires urgent and
ambitious collective action.

Facts:

• As of April 2018, 175 parties had ratified the Paris Agreement and 168 parties had communicated their first nationally determined contributions to the UN framework convention on Climate Change Secretariat.
• As of April 2018, 10 developing countries had successfully completed and submitted their first iteration of their national adaptation plans for responding to climate change.
• Developed country parties continue to make progress towards the goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion annually by 2020 for mitigation actions.

Thanks to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change we know:

• From 1880 to 2012, the average global temperature increased by 0.85°C. To put this into perspective, for each 1 degree of temperature increase, grain yields decline by about 5 percent. Maize, wheat and other major crops have experienced significant yield reductions at the global level of 40 megatons per year between 1981 and 2002 due to a warmer climate.
• Oceans have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished and sea level has risen. From 1901 to 2010, the global average sea level rose by 19 cm as oceans expanded due to warming and ice melted. The Arctic’s sea ice extent has shrunk in every successive decade since 1979, with 1.07 million km² of ice loss every decade
• Given current concentrations and on-going emissions of greenhouse gases, it is likely that by the end of this century, the increase in global temperature will exceed 1.5°C compared to 1850 to 1900 for all but one scenario. The world’s oceans will warm and ice melt will continue. The average sea-level rise is predicted as 24 – 30cm by 2065 and 40-63cm by 2100. Most aspects of climate change will persist for many centuries even if emissions are stopped
• Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) have increased by almost 50 percent since 1990
• Emissions grew more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades
• It is still possible, using a wide array of technological measures and changes in behavior, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels
• Major institutional and technological change will give a better than even chance that global warming will not exceed this threshold

Targets: