Description
Climate Change responsible for 300,000 deaths a year
- First ever report exclusively focused on the global human impact of climate change
London 29 May – Kofi A. Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, today introduced a major new report into the human impact of climate change. 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.
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 Rajendra Pachauri of the IPCC, Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, and Barbara Stocking of Oxfam.
This first ever report exclusively focused on the global human impact of climate change calculates more than 300 million people are seriously affected by climate change at a total economic cost of $125 billion per year
The report, released on 29 May by the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva, 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 further illustrate the links between environment, development and security the report warns climate change threatens all eight of the Millennium Development Goals.
Around 45 million of the 900 million people estimated to be chronically hungry are suffering due to climate change, the report says. Within 20 years that number is expected to double. At the same time food production is expected to fall, driving food prices up 20 percent.
Annan, said the migration of people from newly uninhabitable areas presents a security issue that needs to be addressed by the United Nations Security Council.
Information
- Author(s)
- Global Humanitarian Forum
- Publisher
- Global Humanitarian Forum
- Place published
- Geneva
- Date / journal vol no.
- 29 May 2009
