Climate change: can we go from words to action?

Hot mess ... land temperatures have warmed nearly 1°C in the past 50 years

Global environment and resource security is probably the most widely recognized
challenge facing the world today. In fact, for the past couple of years, climate change
and water scarcity have been identified as the world's top global risks in the Global
Risks Report.
There is broad consensus that humans have played a large part in creating this
challenge, and that the Earth’s average land temperature has warmed nearly 1°C in
the past 50 years as a result of human activity.

Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by nearly 80% since 1970 and
atmospheric concentrations of the major greenhouse gases are at their highest level
in 800,000 years.
What is the impact?
We're already seeing and feeling the impacts of this warming. Ocean temperatures
have been rising faster than the long-term average for the past three decades.
Average sea levels are rising 3mm a year, faster than any time in the past 2,000
years.
Summer Arctic sea ice has now shrunk by 40% compared to the early 1970s,
resulting in warmer Arctic air. This is disturbing wider atmospheric circulation
patterns, such as the gulf stream (ocean currents) and the jet stream (air currents).

Scientists are increasingly concerned that these impacts may be resulting in more
intense and more frequent weather events such as droughts, storms and changing
rainfall patterns. Insurers estimate that since the 1980s weather-related economic
loss events have tripled.
Policy-makers have been advised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change that there is a high risk of catastrophic climate change if warming is not
limited to 2°C.
What can the Paris Agreement do?
The historic agreement reached in Paris in December 2015 outlines a global
agreement to keep warming to 2°C and to strive to limit global temperature rise to
1.5°C.
Under the agreement, every country will implement its own climate action plan that
will be reviewed in 2018 and then every five years to ratchet up ambition levels.
Wealthier countries also committed to deliver significant flows of money and
technical support to help poor countries cope with curbing their greenhouse gas
emissions and adapt to climate change.
The world has agreed what is to be done. Now it is time for implementation.
How serious is water scarcity?
Roughly one-third of the world’s population now lives in water-stressed areas and
nearly 1 billion people don't have access to safe drinking water. Depleted reservoirs
and dusty river beds are obvious symptoms but another piece of the water puzzle is
unseen below our feet.
More than 95% of Earth’s liquid freshwater is stored in underground aquifers and
this groundwater is being used far more quickly than it is being replenished.
The World Bank predicts that global food production will need to increase by 50% by
2050. Considering that agriculture accounts for about 70% of global water
consumption, the consequences could quickly become dire.
Beyond water for food and drink, growing manufacturing and consumer markets are
heightening the demand for water to produce electricity, mine minerals, make
products and process fuel.
The International Energy Agency projects that within the next 20 years, water
consumption for generating energy will need to increase by 85%.
What are the other challenges?
The scientific concept of "planetary boundaries" has climate change and water use
as two of nine interconnected environmental boundaries within which the world
must remain if the planet is to be sustainable.
Work published in the journal Science in 2015 suggested that climate change is one
of four boundaries that have now been crossed. The other three are biodiversity loss,
land system change (such as deforestation) and altered biochemical cycles caused by
pollution.
What is the World Economic Forum doing about it?
The Forum aims to turn the historic Paris climate agreement into a specific agenda
for public-private action. It is working to identify the key strategic environmental
issues where progress is needed. Examples include scaling clean energy, sustainable
land use, sustainable water use and sustainable ocean management. The result will
be a public-private action plan to deliver measurable progress by 2020.

BREENE, Keith (2016). Climate change: can we go from words to action? Available in:
<https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/climate-change-can-we-go-from-word
s-to-action>.