This special feature of the journal Regional Environmental Change examines biophysical impacts under different warming scenarios (1, 1.5, 2, and 4 °C warming) and considers scientifically derived development impacts to gain a better understanding of vulnerability to climate change. The main contributions to this special feature are five regional impact papers summarising climate impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Middle East and Northern Africa.
Risks to Sustainable Development
Risks to sustainable development are manifold and are shaped by the interactions between climatic stimuli and the socio-economic as well as physical environment. Our work in this field includes assessments of risks to livelihoods of vulnerable populations, focussing also on non-climatic factors, which determine vulnerability.
Publications
This United Nations Development Programme report, commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, focuses on the benefits and opportunities of limiting warming to 1.5°C, as enshrined in the Paris Agreement, in terms of economic growth, employment, avoided climate impacts, energy security, access and imports and health.
Climate change impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa: from physical changes to their social repercussionsPeer reviewed
The repercussions of climate change will be felt in various ways throughout both natural and human systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper analyses the implication of climate change-related temperature increase, heat extremes, changes in precipitation for food and water security, coastal communities, and livelihoods.
This paper synthesizes what is known about the physical and biophysical impacts of climate change and their consequences for societies and development under different levels of global warming in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Projections show increasing mean temperatures by up to 4.5 °C compared to pre-industrial by the end of this century across LAC. This paper concludes that LAC will be severely affected by climate change, even under lower levels of warming, due to the potential for impacts to occur simultaneously and compound one another. This article has been accepted.
Third report in the Turn Down the Heat series assesses climate risks in Latin American and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa and Europe and Central Asia.
The IPCC’s Fourth Assessment (AR4) made clear Africa is a vulnerability hotspot for climate change.
Projects
SLICE is investigating Short- and Long-Term Impacts of Climate Extremes and aims to develop a systematic understanding of the channels through which climate extremes impact socio-economic development all the way from the household to the macroeconomic level. This will help developing effective strategies for long-term economic development under climate change.
This World Bank funded project supports five African countries in developing and implementing plans and investments for managing climate and disaster risks.
Supported by UNEP, the Economic Growth and Climate Change in Africa research assesses how climate variability affects economic output.
Project Period: 2014 - 2015
Produced for the AMCEN, the research aims at improving and understanding science related to loss and damage in Africa, as well as the existing mechanisms to address loss and damage and their limitations. The research also explores the options for institutional arrangements on loss and damage under the UNFCC and investigates the next steps related to the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.
Project Period: 2013 - 2014