Report: Climate change already a 'silent human crisis'

A report unveiled in London today assesses for the first time the human costs of climate change, both now and in the future.

“Human Impact Report: Climate Change — The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis” was produced by the Global Humanitarian Forum. The study was reviewed by international experts including Rajendra Pachauri of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University and Barbara Stocking of Oxfam.

According to the report, more than 300,000 people a year are dying from the effects of climate change. That figure is expected to rise to a half-million annually by 2030.

In addition, climate change is already having a serious impact on the lives of 325 million people, a number that will likely reach 660 million in 20 years. By affecting 10 per cent of the world’s population, that makes global warming the planet’s largest emerging humanitarian challenge, according to the report.

The economic costs of climate change are also steep, the report finds. Losses today total more than $125 billion a year — a figure that’s greater than the total amount of annual aid that currently flows from industrialised countries to developing nations. By 2030, the economic losses due to climate change will have almost trebled to $340 billion annually.

“Climate change is a silent human crisis,” said Kofi A. Annan, president of the Global Humanitarian Forum. “Yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time. Already today, it causes suffering to hundreds of millions of people most of whom are not even aware that they are victims of climate change. We need an international agreement to contain climate change and reduce its widespread suffering.”

He continued, “Despite its dangerous impact, climate change is a neglected area of research since much of the debate has focused on the long-term physical effects. The point of this report is to focus on today and on the human face of climate change.”

With international talks on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol set to begin in Copenhagen this December, the world “finds itself at a crossroads,” Annan said.

“Put simply, the report is a clarion call for negotiators at Copenhagen to come to the most ambitious international
agreement ever negotiated, or continue to accept mass starvation, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale.”