A/74/161 A. Overview of climate change impacts 6. Climate change is already having major impacts on human health, livelihoods and rights. One degree of warming has occurred at the global level, with some regions, such as the Arctic and high mountain areas, experiencing two or three times as much warming. Eighteen of the warmest years in recorded history occurred in the past 19 years. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that humanity is already enduring increased frequency, intensity and duration of extreme weather events, melting of glaciers and ice sheets, rising sea levels, storm s urges, saltwater intrusion, ocean acidification, changes in precipitation, flooding, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, increased air pollution, desertification, water shortages, the destruction of ecosystems, biodiversity loss and the spread of water borne and vector-borne disease. 4 The number of extreme weather events has doubled since the early 1990s. 5 Between 2005 and 2015, over 700,000 people died, over 1.4 million were injured, 23 million lost their homes and over 1.5 billion were affected by natural disasters, at a total cost exceeding $1.3 trillion. 6 Economic losses from natural disasters, exacerbated by climate change, were $330 billion in 2017, making it the costliest year on record. Most of these losses were uninsured, including 99 per cent of losses in low-income countries. 7. Climate change interacts with poverty, conflict, resource depletion and other factors to cause or exacerbate food insecurity, loss of livelihoods, infrastructure breakdown and loss of access to essential services including ele ctricity, water, sanitation and health care. Poor people are disproportionately affected by climate impacts, which could push an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030. 7 Climate change is an increasingly important contributor to displac ement and migration, both within nations and across international borders. 8 Record high temperatures, heatwaves and wildfires in 2018 afflicting wealthy countries – Australia, Canada, Sweden and the United States of America – demonstrated that no State is immune to the impacts of the global climate crisis. 8. Climate-related natural disasters are hitting low-income countries and small island developing States hard. Flooding in Pakistan in 2010 affected 20 million people, causing almost 2,000 deaths. The 2011 East Africa drought and the 2011– 2012 Somalia famine were extreme climate -related events that, combined with other vulnerabilities, such as conflict and rising food prices, overwhelmed coping mechanisms, causing destitution, food insecurity and malnutri tion. 9. In 2015, Cyclone Pam displaced a quarter of the population of Vanuatu and inflicted $590 million in damages, equivalent to 65 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Fiji was blasted by Cyclone Winston in 2016, resulting in more than 40,000 homes being damaged or destroyed and $1.4 billion in damages. In 2017, just two years after Hurricane Erika caused damage equivalent to 90 per cent of its GDP, Dominica was hit by Hurricane Maria, which damaged 98 per cent of homes and resulted in losses equalling 260 per cent of the country’s GDP. Mozambique was hammered by two major cyclones just six weeks apart in 2019, causing extensive flooding, thousands of deaths and billions in damages. This list could go on and on. 10. Entire communities have been or are in the process of being relocated owing to rising sea levels, coastal erosion, storm surges, salinization and other climate impacts. These include the communities of Vunidogoloa, Fiji; Nuatambu, Nusa Hope and Taro, Solomon Islands; and Shishmaref, Kivalina, Newtok and Isle de Jean Charles, United States. Hundreds more face a similar fate. It is estimated that by 2050, 150 million people or more could be displaced by the impacts of climate change as a result of extreme weather, slow-onset events such as rising sea levels and desertification, relocation from high-risk areas (such as floodplains), and conflicts over scarce __________________ 4 5 6 7 8 6/22 IPCC, Global Warming of 1.5°C (IPCC, 2018). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP) and World Health Organization (WHO), The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018. Building climate resilience for food security and nutrition (Rome, FAO, 2018). Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. World Bank, Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, Climate Change and Development Series (Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2016). IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report (IPCC, 2014) and IPCC, Global Warming of 1.5°C (IPCC, 2018). 19-11977