Report Estimates Climate Change responsible for 300,000 deaths a year
Posted by Craig Clarke
Kofi A. Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, introduced a major new report into the human impact of climate change on May 29. The Human Impact Report: Climate Change: The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis is the first ever comprehensive report looking at the human impact of climate change. It calculates more than 300 million people are seriously affected by climate change at a total economic cost of $125 billion per year.
The report was issued immediately prior to official preparatory talks in Bonn for a new UN international climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. These talks will culminate at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.
The report was reviewed by leading international experts, including Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam Great Britain.
The report estimates that climate change today accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year, the equivalent of an Indian Ocean Tsunami every single year.
The report projects that by 2030, worldwide deaths will reach almost 500,000 per year; people affected by climate change annually expected to rise to over 600 million and the total annual economic cost increase to around $300 billion.
To avert worst possible outcomes, climate change adaptation efforts need to be scaled up by a factor of 100 in developing countries, which suffer 99% of casualties due to climate change.
The report was reviewed by leading international experts, including Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam Great Britain.
The report estimates that climate change today accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year, the equivalent of an Indian Ocean Tsunami every single year.
The report projects that by 2030, worldwide deaths will reach almost 500,000 per year; people affected by climate change annually expected to rise to over 600 million and the total annual economic cost increase to around $300 billion.
To avert worst possible outcomes, climate change adaptation efforts need to be scaled up by a factor of 100 in developing countries, which suffer 99% of casualties due to climate change.
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