World must act now to address Climate Change by WMO, NASA, OHCHR, Reliefweb, agencies 9:58am 22nd Nov, 2015   April 2016    The global temperature in March has shattered a century-long record and by the greatest margin yet seen for any month.    February was far above the long-term average globally, driven largely by climate change, and was described by scientists as a “shocker” and signalling “a kind of climate emergency”. But data released by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) shows that March was even hotter.    Compared with the 20th-century average, March was 1.07C hotter across the globe, according to the JMA figures, while February was 1.04C higher. The JMA measurements go back to 1891 and show that every one of the past 11 months has been the hottest ever recorded for that month.    Data released released later on Friday by Nasa confirmed last month was the hottest March on record, but the US agency’s data indicated February had seen the biggest margin. The Nasa data recorded March as 1.65C above the average from 1951-1980, while February was 1.71C higher.    The World Meteorological Organisation, the UN body for climate and weather, said the March data had “smashed” previous records.    Climate change is usually assessed over years and decades, but even scientists have been struck by the recent unprecedented temperatures. Furthermore, annual heat records have been also tumbling, with 2015 demolishing the record set in 2014 for the hottest year seen, in data stretching back to 1850.    The UK Met Office expects 2016 to set a new record, meaning the global temperature record is set to have been broken for three years in a row.    Prof Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State University in the US, responded to the March data by saying: “Wow. I continue to be shocked by what we are seeing.” He said the world had now been hovering close to the threshold of “dangerous” warming for two months, something not seen before.    “The new data is a reminder of how perilously close we now are to permanently crossing into dangerous territory,” Mann said. “It underscores the urgency of reducing global carbon emissions.”    March 2016    February smashed a century of global temperature records by “stunning” margin, according to data released by Nasa.    The unprecedented leap led scientists, usually wary of highlighting a single month’s temperature, to label the new record a “shocker” and warn of a “climate emergency”.    The Nasa data shows the average global surface temperature in February was 1.35C warmer than the average temperature for the month between 1951-1980, a far bigger margin than ever seen before. The previous record, set just one month earlier in January, was 1.15C above the long-term average for that month.    “Nasa dropped a bombshell of a climate report,” said Jeff Masters and Bob Henson, who analysed the data on the Weather Underground website. “February dispensed with the one-month-old record by a full 0.21C – an extraordinary margin to beat a monthly world temperature record by.”    “This result is a true shocker, and yet another reminder of the incessant long-term rise in global temperature resulting from human-produced greenhouse gases,” said Masters and Henson. “We are now hurtling at a frightening pace toward the globally agreed maximum of 2C warming over pre-industrial levels.”    The UN climate summit in Paris in December confirmed 2C as the danger limit for global warming which should not be passed. But it also agreed agreed to “pursue efforts” to limit warming to 1.5C, a target now looking increasingly uncertain.    Climate change is usually assessed over years and decades, and 2015 shattered the record set in 2014 for the hottest year seen, in data stretching back to 1850. The UK Met Office also expects 2016 to set a new record, meaning the global temperature record will have been broken for three years in a row.    “We are in a kind of climate emergency now,” said Prof Stefan Rahmstorf, from the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research in Germany. “This is really quite stunning, it’s completely unprecedented.”    “This is a very worrying result,” said Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, noting that each of the last five months globally have been hotter than any month preceding them.    “These results suggest that we may be even closer than we realised to breaching the [2C] limit. We have used up all of our room for manoeuvre. If we delay any longer strong cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, it looks like global mean surface temperature is likely to exceed the level beyond which the impacts of climate change are likely to be very dangerous.”    Scientists are agreed that global warming driven by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions is by far the largest factor in the astonishing run of temperature records.    Prof Adam Scaife, at the UK Met Office, said the very low levels of Arctic ice were also helping to raise temperatures: “There has been record low ice in the Arctic for two months running and that releases a lot of heat.” He said the Met Office had forecast a record-breaking 2016 in December: “It is not as if you can’t see these things coming.”    The record for an annual increase of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, was also demolished in 2015.    Fossil fuel-burning and the strong El Niño pushed CO2 levels up by 3.05 parts per million (ppm) to 402.6 ppm compared to 2014. “CO2 levels are increasing faster than they have in hundreds of thousands of years,” said Pieter Tans, lead scientist at Noaa’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. “It’s explosive compared to natural processes.”    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/february-smashes-earths-alltime-global-heat-record-by-a-jawdropping http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Climatechangestragictollonhealth.aspx    Jan. 21, 2016    2015 Hottest Year ever Recorded (NASA, NOAA)    2015 was the warmest year since modern record-keeping began in 1880, according to a new analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.    The record-breaking year continues a long-term warming trend — 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have now occurred since 2001.    Earth’s 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record keeping began in 1880, according to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).    Globally-averaged temperatures in 2015 shattered the previous mark set in 2014 by 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius). Only once before, in 1998, has the new record been greater than the old record by this much.    The 2015 temperatures continue a long-term warming trend, according to analyses by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York (GISTEMP). NOAA scientists concur with the finding that 2015 was the warmest year on record based on separate, independent analyses of the data.    “Climate change is the challenge of our generation, and NASA’s vital work on this important issue affects every person on Earth,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Today’s announcement not only underscores how critical NASA’s Earth observation program is, it is a key data point that should make policy makers stand up and take notice - now is the time to act on climate.”    The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1.0 degree Celsius) since the late-19th century, a change largely driven by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.    Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 15 of the 16 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. Last year was the first time the global average temperatures were 1 degree Celsius or more above the 1880-1899 average.    Phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña, which warm or cool the tropical Pacific Ocean, can contribute to short-term variations in global average temperature. A warming El Niño was in effect for most of 2015.    “2015 was remarkable even in the context of the ongoing El Niño,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. “Last year’s temperatures had an assist from El Niño, but it is the cumulative effect of the long-term trend that has resulted in the record warming that we are seeing.”    http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-noaa-analyses-reveal-record-shattering-global-warm-temperatures-in-2015    Nov 2015    Transitioning rapidly to a future fuelled by renewable energy - International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)    IRENA report presents actions to limit global temperature rise to below 2°C by accelerating transition to renewable energy.    Emission reductions from renewables, coupled with energy efficiency improvements, must be at the heart of any effort to limit global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius, according to a report released today by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).    REthinking Energy 2015 – Renewable Energy and Climate, finds that achieving a 36 per cent share of renewable energy by 2030 would result in half of all emission reductions needed to maintain a two degree pathway. Energy efficiency measures could supply the rest.    “The energy sector accounts for more than two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore must be the focus of climate action,” said Adnan Amin, IRENA Director-General.    “Transitioning rapidly to a future fuelled by renewable energy, accompanied by increasing energy efficiency, is the most effective way to limit global temperature rise. This transition is underway but it must be accelerated if we are to limit global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius.”    According to the report, scaling up renewable energy to the level required to meet global climate objectives would contribute to at least 12 of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by increasing energy access, improving quality of life and reducing poverty.    The renewable energy sector employs 7.7 million people worldwide, creating more jobs per unit of electricity generated than coal or natural gas. If a 36 per cent share of renewables is achieved, employment levels could exceed 24 million jobs by 2030.    To achieve a 36 per cent share of total energy, the uptake of renewable energy would need to increase six-fold from current levels. This would require that global annual investment nearly double, to exceed USD 500 billion in the period up to 2020, and more than triple to exceed USD 900 billion from 2021 to 2030.    To help achieve this, the report outlines five actions for a sustainable energy future including: strengthening policy commitments, mobilising investments, building institutional capacity, linking renewables to Sustainable Development Goals and enhancing regional engagement.    “The strong business case for renewable energy has made the energy transition inevitable,” said Mr. Amin. “It is now not a question of if the world ultimately transitions to a renewable energy future, but rather whether it will do so quickly enough. At the upcoming climate talks in Paris, it will be up to countries to commit to strong targets, and in turn, give a strong political signal to catalyse further investments in renewable energy.”    * The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is mandated as the global hub for renewable energy cooperation and information exchange by 144 Members (143 States and the European Union). IRENA promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access, energy security and low-carbon economic growth and prosperity.    http://www.irena.org/News/Description.aspx?NType=A&mnu=cat&PriMenuID=16&CatID=84&News_ID=433    Children will bear the brunt of climate change - UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)    More than half a billion children live in areas with extremely high flood occurrence and 160 million in high drought severity zones, leaving them highly exposed to the impacts of climate change, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a report released ahead of the 21st United Nations climate change conference, known as COP21.    According to the agency, of the 530 million children in the flood-prone zones, some 300 million live in countries where more than half the population lives in poverty – on less than $3.10 a day. Of those living in high drought severity areas, at least 50 million are in countries where more than half the population lives in poverty.    “The sheer numbers underline the urgency of acting now,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.    “Today’s children are the least responsible for climate change, but they, and their children, are the ones who will live with its consequences. And, as is so often the case, disadvantaged communities face the gravest threat”.    Climate change means more droughts, floods, heatwaves and other severe weather conditions. UNICEF is underlining that these events can cause death and devastation, and can also contribute to the increased spread of major killers of children, such as malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea. This can create a vicious circle – a child deprived of adequate water and sanitation before a crisis will be more affected by a flood, drought, or severe storm, less likely to recover quickly, and at even greater risk when faced with a subsequent crisis.    The report, Unless we act now: The impact of climate change on children, finds that the vast majority of the children living in areas at extremely high risk of floods are in Asia, and the majority of those in areas at risk of drought are in Africa.    Government leaders gathering in Paris will seek to reach agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which experts say is critical to limiting potentially catastrophic rises in temperature.    “We know what has to be done to prevent the devastation climate change can inflict. Failing to act would be unconscionable,” said Mr. Lake.    http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_86337.html    Nov 2015    World in uncharted territory after greenhouse gases hit new high in 2014: United Nations    Concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new high in 2014, the UN says, warning climate change could move the world into "uncharted territory".    In its annual report on Earth-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organisation said concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide once again broke records last year.    "We are moving into uncharted territory at a frightening speed," WMO chief Michel Jarraud said in a statement.    "Every year we report a new record in greenhouse gas concentrations," Mr Jarraud said.    "Every year we say that the time is running out. We have to act now to slash greenhouse gas emissions if we are to have a chance to keep the increase in temperatures to manageable levels."    His appeal comes just weeks before the Paris summit aims to ensure global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.    Mr Jarraud said that CO2, by far the main culprit in global warming, could remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in the ocean even longer.    "Past, present and future emissions will have a cumulative impact on both global warming and ocean acidification," he said, stressing "the laws of physics are non-negotiable."    Higher C02 levels will lead to more extreme weather    WMO"s report, which does not measure emissions of greenhouse gases, but rather their concentrations in the atmosphere, showed that CO2 had risen to 397.7 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere last year.    That was 143 per cent of levels prior to the year 1750, WMO said. It added that CO2 concentrations would likely pass the ominous 400-ppm threshold in 2016.    "We will soon be living with globally averaged CO2 levels above 400 parts per million as a permanent reality," Mr Jarraud said.    "We can"t see CO2. It is an invisible threat, but a very real one.    "It means hotter global temperatures, more extreme weather events like heatwaves and floods, melting ice, rising sea levels and increased acidity of the oceans."    Oceans swallow about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, while the biosphere sucks up another quarter.    The rising CO2 concentrations are especially worrying, WMO said, since the gas in turn hikes levels of water vapour — itself a powerful, albeit short-lived, greenhouse gas.    This is because warmer air holds more moisture, the UN agency said, cautioning that "further increases in CO2 concentrations will lead to disproportionately high increases in thermal energy and warming from water vapour".    If CO2 concentrations were to double from their pre-industrial level of 280 ppm to 560 ppm, water vapour and clouds globally would hike global warming at three times the rate of so-called long-lived greenhouse gases, WMO said.    The report also showed that methane, the second most important long-lived greenhouse gas, reached a new record concentration of 1,833 ppm last year.    With 60 per cent of methane emissions attributed to human activities like cattle farming and landfills, hikes in such emissions have boosted concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere to 254 per cent of pre-1750 levels, WMO said.    Nitrous oxide, the impact on the climate of which is nearly 300 times greater than CO2 and which also destroys the ozone layer that protects from harmful ultraviolet rays, had an atmospheric concentration of 327.1 parts per billion last year, or 121 percent of pre-industrial levels, WMO said.    http://www.climatecentral.org/news/the-world-is-halfway-to-2c-19663    Nov. 2015    Human-caused climate change greatly increased the likelihood and intensity for extreme heat waves. (NOAA)    Deadly cyclones in the Pacific. Deluges in Europe. Heat waves in numerous regions of the world. According to a far-reaching study released this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), many of the specific extreme weather events that defined 2014 were "influenced" by human-made events, particularly climate change.    Explaining Extreme Events of 2014 from a Climate Perspective was published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and draws on conclusions from 32 international teams of scientists who investigated 28 separate weather events.    "A number of this year’s studies indicate that human-caused climate change greatly increased the likelihood and intensity for extreme heat waves in 2014 over various regions," a report summary states.    "For other types of extreme events, such as droughts, heavy rains, and winter storms, a climate change influence was found in some instances and not in others."    However, the researchers noted that their failure to identify a climate change link could "also mean that the human influence cannot be conclusively identified with the scientific tools available today."    What is clear from the report is that numerous dramatic and deadly extreme weather events around the world in 2014 were tied to climate change, including the following examples, as quoted from NOAA:    Two studies showed that the drought in East Africa was made more severe because of climate change. Extreme heat events in Korea and China were linked to human-caused climate change.    Devastating 2014 floods in Jakarta are becoming more likely due to climate change and other human influences. Meteorological drivers that led to the extreme Himalayan snowstorm of 2014 have increased in likelihood due to climate change.    The Argentinean heat wave of December 2013 was made five times more likely because of human-induced climate change. Four independent studies all pointed toward human influence causing a substantial increase in the likelihood and severity of heat waves across Australia in 2014.    Tropical cyclones that hit Hawaii were substantially more likely because of human-induced climate change. Human-induced climate change and land-use both played a role in the flooding that occurred in the southeastern Canadian Prairies.    Overall probability of California wildfires has increased due to human-induced climate change.    "As the science of event attribution continues to advance, so too will our ability to detect and distinguish the effects of long-term climate change and natural variability on individual extreme events," Tom Karl, head of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, said in a statement. "Until this is fully realized, communities would be well-served to look beyond the range of past extreme events to guide future resiliency efforts."    The report comes just days after a rare and powerful cyclone made landfall in Yemen, impacting over 1.1 million people and displacing 40,000.    http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/explaining-extreme-events-2014    Nov 2015    Climate change poses major threat to food security, warns UN expert    “Climate change poses severe and distinct threats to food security, and could subject an additional 600 million people to malnutrition by 2080,” warned the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver.    “Increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather, rising temperatures and sea levels, as well as floods and droughts have a significant impact on the right to food,” said the expert. “All these climate incidents will negatively impact on crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and on people’s livelihoods,” she added.    “Those who have contributed the least to global warming are the ones set to suffer the most from its harmful effects,” stressed Ms. Elver. “Urgent action is needed to respond to the challenges posed by climate change,” she added, “but mitigation and adaptation policies should respect the right to food as well as other fundamental human rights.”    “Civil society pressure is mounting on the parties of the UNFCCC to achieve results in Paris by adopting a human rights approach to the climate change agreement that will respect, protect and fulfill human rights of all persons, and especially those most vulnerable. Any agreement must include a clear commitment by all relevant parties to ensuring climate justice and food security for all,” stressed Ms. Elver.    The Special Rapporteur highlighted her concerns surrounding the impact of climate change on the right to food in her recent report presented to the UN General Assembly on 23 October 2015.    http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16702&LangID=E http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/345727/icode/ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/COP21.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16049&LangID=E    The Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty - 100 million additional people in poverty by 2030. (Reliefweb)    Climate change is already preventing people from escaping poverty, and without rapid, inclusive and climate-smart development, together with emissions-reductions efforts that protect the poor, there could be more than 100 million additional people in poverty by 2030, according to a new World Bank Group report.    The report, Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, finds that poor people are already at high risk from climate-related shocks, including crop failures from reduced rainfall, spikes in food prices after extreme weather events, and increased incidence of diseases after heat waves and floods. It says such shocks could wipe out hard-won gains, leading to irreversible losses, driving people back into poverty, particularly in Africa and South Asia.    “This report sends a clear message that ending poverty will not be possible unless we take strong action to reduce the threat of climate change on poor people and dramatically reduce harmful emissions,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “Climate change hits the poorest the hardest, and our challenge now is to protect tens of millions of people from falling into extreme poverty because of a changing climate.”    The report finds that the poorest people are more exposed than the average population to climate-related shocks such as floods, droughts, and heat waves, and they lose much more of their wealth when they are hit.    In the 52 countries where data was available, 85 percent of the population live in countries where poor people are more exposed to drought than the average. Poor people are also more exposed to higher temperatures and live in countries where food production is expected to decrease because of climate change.    The report, highlights how ending poverty and fighting climate change can be more effectively achieved if addressed together.    Agriculture will be the main driver of any increase in poverty, the report finds. Modeling studies suggest that climate change could result in global crop yield losses as large as 30 percent by 2080. Health effects—higher incidence of malaria, diarrhea and stunting—and the labor productivity effects of high temperatures are the next-strongest drivers.    The impact of climate change on food prices in Africa could be as high as 70 percent by 2080 – a crippling blow to those nations where food consumption of the poorest households amounts to over 60 percent of total spending.    In focusing on impacts through agriculture, natural disasters and health, the report calls for development efforts that improve the resilience of poor people, such as strengthening social safety nets and universal health coverage, along with climate-specific measures to help cope with a changing climate, such as upgraded flood defenses, early warning systems and climate-resistant crops.    At the same time, the report says an all-out push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is needed to remove the long-term threat that climate change poses for poverty reduction. Such mitigation efforts should be designed to ensure that they do not burden the poor. For example, the savings from eliminating fossil fuel subsidies could be reinvested in assistance schemes to help poor families cope with higher fuel costs.    In poor countries, support from the international community will be essential to accomplish many of these measures, according to the report. This is particularly true for investments with high upfront costs-- such as urban transport or resilient energy infrastructure -- that are critical to prevent lock-ins into carbon-intensive patterns.    “The future is not set in stone,” said Stephane Hallegatte, who led the team that prepared the report. “We have a window of opportunity to act to achieve our poverty objectives in the face of climate change, provided we make wise policy choices now.”    http://reliefweb.int/report/world/shock-waves-managing-impacts-climate-change-poverty    Oct. 2015    Global temperatures are running far above last year’s record-setting level, all but guaranteeing that 2015 will be the hottest year in the historical record — and undermining any dubious political claims that global warming had somehow stopped.    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the American agency that tracks worldwide temperatures, announced this week that last month had been the hottest September on record, and in fact took the biggest leap above the previous September that any month has displayed since 1880, when tracking began at a global scale. The agency also announced that the January-to-September period had been the hottest such span on the books.    The extreme heat and related climate disturbances mean that delegates to a global climate conference scheduled for Paris in early December will almost certainly be convening as weather-related disasters are unfolding around the world, putting them under greater political pressure to reach an ambitious deal to limit future emissions and slow the temperature increase.    One immediate cause of the record-breaking warmth is a strong El Nino weather pattern, in which the ocean releases immense amounts of heat into the atmosphere. But temperatures are running so far ahead of those during the last strong El Nino, in 1997 and 1998, that scientists said the records would not be occurring without an underlying trend caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases.    “The bottom line is that the world is warming,” said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with NOAA.    She pointed to measurements in several of the world’s ocean basins, where surface temperatures are as much as three degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average, a substantial increase when calculated over such large areas.    “We’re seeing it all across the Indian Ocean, in huge parts of the Atlantic Ocean, in parts of the Arctic oceans,” Dr. Blunden said in an interview. “It’s just incredible to me. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”    The combined effects of El Nino and greenhouse warming are already roiling weather patterns worldwide, contributing to dry weather and forest fires in Indonesia, to an incipient drought in Australia and to a developing food emergency across parts of Africa, including a severe drought in Ethiopia. Those effects are likely to intensify in coming months as the El Nino reaches its peak.    Earlier this year, the global warmth contributed to a spring heat wave in India and Pakistan that killed many people, possibly several thousand, with temperatures hitting 118 degrees in parts of India. The effects on the natural world have also been severe.    http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201509    UN report finds 90 per cent of disasters are weather-related.    A new report issued by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) shows that over the last 20 years, 90 per cent of major disasters have been caused by 6,457 recorded floods, storms, heatwaves, droughts and other weather-related events.    The report, entitled The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters finds that the five countries hit by the highest number of disasters are the United States, China, India, Philippines, and Indonesia.    “Weather and climate are major drivers of disaster risk and this report demonstrates that the world is paying a high price in lives lost,” said Ms. Margareta Wahlström, head of UNISDR, in a press release.    “Economic losses are a major development challenge for many least developed countries battling climate change and poverty,” she continued.    The report and analysis compiled by UNISDR and the Belgian-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) demonstrates that since the first UN climate change conference (COP1) in 1995, 606,000 lives have been lost and 4.1 billion people have been injured, left homeless or in need of emergency assistance as a result of weather-related disasters.    The report also highlights data gaps, noting that economic losses from weather-related disasters are much higher than the recorded figure of US$1.891 trillion, which accounts for 71 per cent of all losses attributed to natural hazards over the twenty-year period. Only 35 per cent of records include information about economic losses. UNISDR estimates that the true figure on disaster losses – including earthquakes and tsunamis – is between US$250 billion and US$300 billion annually.    “In the long term, an agreement in Paris at COP21 on reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be a significant contribution to reducing damage and loss from disasters which are partly driven by a warming globe and rising sea levels,” Ms. Wahlström explained.    “For now, there is a need to reduce existing levels of risk and avoid creating new risk by ensuring that public and private investments are risk-informed and do not increase the exposure of people and economic assets to natural hazards on flood plains, vulnerable low-lying coastlines or other locations unsuited for human settlement.”    Ms. Wahlström recalled that the development year started last March with the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year package endorsed by the UN General Assembly, which sets out clear targets for a substantial reduction in disaster losses, including mortality, numbers of people affected, economic losses and damage to critical infrastructure including schools and hospitals.    Professor Debarati Guha-Sapir, the head of CRED, said climate change, climate variability and weather events are a threat to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals’ overall target of eliminating poverty.    “We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle other risk drivers such as unplanned urban development, environmental degradation and gaps in early warnings,” she said. “This all requires ensuring people are risk informed and strengthening institutions which manage disaster risk.”    According to the report, Asia accounts for the “lion’s share of disaster impacts” including 332,000 deaths and 3.7 billion people affected. The death toll in Asia included 138,000 deaths caused by Cyclone Nargis which struck Myanmar in 2008.    In total, an average of 335 weather-related disasters were recorded per year between 2005 and 2014, an increase of 14 per cent from 1995-2004, and almost twice the level recorded during 1985-1995.    The extent of the toll taken by disasters on society is revealed by other statistics from CRED’s Emergency Events Data Base, or EM-DAT, which shows that 87 million homes were damaged or destroyed over the period of the survey.    The analysis also highlights that floods accounted for 47 percent of all weather-related disasters from 1995-2015, affecting 2.3 billion people and killing 157,000. Storms were the deadliest type of weather-related disaster, accounting for 242,000 deaths or 40 percent of the global weather-related deaths, with 89 per cent of these deaths occurring in lower-income countries.    Overall, heatwaves accounted for 148,000 of the 164,000 lives lost due to extreme temperatures, with 92 per cent of deaths occurring in high-income countries. (Longer term mortality figures may be significantly higher)    Finally, drought reportedly affects Africa more than any other continent, with EM-DAT recoding 136 events there between 1995 and 2015, including 77 droughts in East Africa alone. The report also recommends that there needs to be improved data collection on indirect deaths from drought.    http://www.unisdr.org/archive/46793 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52627#.VlO3f16pUd8    August 2015    Dangerously Hot and Humid Days soon will become Regular Occurrences.    Climate change will make "danger days" — periods when temperature and humidity push the heat index to 105 degrees Fahrenheit over 40 Celsius or higher — much more common over the next 15 years, according to a Climate Central analysis. Looking at 144 U.S. cities, the team determined that only 12 cities have averaged more than one dangerously hot and humid day per year since 1950. By 2030, though, 85 cities — home to nearly one-third of the U.S. population — will likely experience at least 20 danger days each year.    That"s a dramatic and fast-approaching change from current conditions, the analysts note. Houston, for example, saw only three danger days between 2000 and 2010, but it should expect 102 danger days each year by 2050. The most dramatic increases will be seen in the South, the analysis found. Charleston, West Virginia, is expected to become the most dangerously hot and humid city in the country, experiencing 168 danger days per year by mid-century.    http://www.climatecentral.org/news/danger-days-on-rise-in-us-cities-19322 http://www.climatecentre.org/news/614/heatwave-is-death-sentence-for-karachia-s-poor http://www.climateinteractive.org/tools/scoreboard/ http://climateactiontracker.org/ http://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/heatwaves-health-guidance/en/ http://ourchildrenstrust.org/sites/default/files/15.08.12.HansenExpertDecSupportingYouth.pdf http://www.thelancet.com/commissions/climate-change-2015 http://www.thecvf.org/human-rights-focus-can-strengthen-paris-climate-deal/    Earth Day: scientists say 75% of known fossil fuel reserves must stay in ground    Three-quarters of known fossil fuel reserves must be kept in the ground if humanity is to avoid the worst effects of climate change, a group of leading scientists and economists have said in a statement timed to coincide with Earth Day.    The Earth League, which includes Nicholas Stern, the author of several influential reports on the economics of climate change; Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, a climate scientist and adviser to Angela Merkel; and the US economist Jeffrey Sachs, urged world leaders to follow up on their commitments to avoid dangerous global warming.    Spelling out what a global deal at the UN climate summit in Paris later this year should include, the group demanded governments adopt a goal of reducing economies’ carbon emissions to zero by mid-century, put a price on carbon and that the richest take the lead with the most aggressive cuts.    In its “Earth statement”, the group said that three-quarters of known fossil fuel reserves must be left in the ground if warming was not to breach a rise of 2C, the “safety limit” agreed to by governments.    Johan Rockström, the statement’s lead author, said: “From a scientific perspective, 2015 is a decisive moment. The window to navigate ourselves free from a ‘beyond 2C future’ is barely open. It’s the last chance to navigate ourselves towards a desired future.    “It’s so frustrating, because it’s the choice of moving down a business-as-usual route with devastating outcomes for humanity and, at the same time, we have this almost unprecedented opportunity, we can transform the world economy to a fossil fuel-free one and moreover do it in a way that is security and health-wise more attractive.”    The statement says that failure by the world to act on climate change increase the chance of temperatures rising by more than 4C by 2100, a level of risk that would be comparable with accepting 10,000 plane crashes daily worldwide.    Rockström said there was now enough scientific evidence that the world was approaching irreversible tipping points where the Earth’s system begins to accelerate the warming that man has already caused. Methane being released as permafrost thaws and melting ice meaning less solar energy reflected back into space are two examples.    “That’s the scientific nightmare,” Rockström said. “You don’t want the Earth to go from friend to foe … this could happen quite soon.”    He admitted, however, that there was a significant gap between the group’s demands and what might be achieved at the Paris conference, COP21, with several significant players already playing down expectations. “We’re not at all where we need to be,” Rockström said.    Sachs said: “COP21 is the moment of truth, the last chance to stay within the 2C upper limit.”    The statement called for developed countries to help scale up financial aid for developing countries to deal with climate change, and for Paris to agree the beginnings of a strategy to make countries more resilient to the extreme weather a warming world is expected to bring.    http://www.iisd.org/media/phasing-out-fossil-fuel-subsidies-would-result-large-reduction-greenhouse-gas-emissions-2020 http://newsroom.unfccc.int/unfccc-newsroom/most-fossil-fuels-must-stay-in-the-ground-new-study/ http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30709211    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4626 http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/food-insecurity-index/ http://www.mrfcj.org/news/ http://theelders.org/news-media/climate-change    http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2015-11-25/delays-cutting-emissions-set-cost-developing-countries-hundreds http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/impacts-low-aggregate-indcs-ambition http://www.actionaid.org/publications/mind-adaptation-gap http://careclimatechange.org/publications/cop21-sealing-fair-just-climate-deal/    http://www.climatenetwork.org/ http://careclimatechange.org/ http://www.climatecentre.org/ http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/negotiations/COP21-Paris/ http://www.climate2020.org.uk/at-a-glance/#policy-and-science http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?256938/COP21 http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?257493 http://www.foei.org/what-we-do/paris http://350.org/paris/ http://tcktcktck.org/ http://www.iisd.org/media/phasing-out-fossil-fuel-subsidies-would-result-large-reduction-greenhouse-gas-emissions-2020    http://www.carbontracker.org/ http://climateactiontracker.org/news/248/The-Coal-Gap.html http://www.boell.de/en/dossier-coal-atlas-facts-and-figures-fossil-fuel http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/22/earth-day-scientists-warning-fossil-fuels- http://www.theguardian.com/environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris    http://www.trust.org/spotlight/un-climate-talks-2015/ http://www.the-earth-league.org/ http://academicsstand.org/2015/06/with-paris-talks-looming-legal-experts-find-all-countries-must-act-on-climate/ http://www.iied.org/what-do-least-developed-countries-want-cop21 http://www.thecvf.org/worlds-vulnerable-open-gateway-to-climate-safe-future-at-paris/ http://www.iied.org/using-power-judiciary-protect-people-climate-change http://climateactiontracker.org/ http://www.climateinteractive.org/tools/scoreboard/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/features/the-2015-paris-climate-summit/    * Watch video press conferences from the Paris Climate Conference COP21 here: http://unfccc6.meta-fusion.com/cop21/ Visit the related web page
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