Impacts

150,000 people already die every year from climate change (World Health Organisation).

The area of the world stricken by drought has doubled between 1970 and the early 2000s (Greenpeace).

The economic costs of global warming are doubling every decade (UN).

The impact of climate change on some wildlife will already be catastrophic even with little further change in the climate. Up to a third of land-based species could face extinction by the middle of the century (RSPB).

100 million more people will be flooded by end of century (FoE).

People in low-income countries are four times more likely to die in natural disasters than people in high income countries. Globally, disaster losses increased from $71 billion in the 1960s to $608 billion in 1990s. Poverty and lagging development exacerbates people’s vulnerability to extreme weather (Oxfam).

Water availability could decline – Over 3 billion people in the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent could be facing acute shortages of water (Oxfam).

Global warming will submerge many low-lying island nations entirely — one of the Carteret atolls of Papua New Guinea has already been cut in half by the ocean. Tuvalu in the South Pacific has concluded a deal with New Zealand to evacuate the entire 10,000 population (People & Planet).

There has been a 40% drop in the amount of arctic ice since the 1970s. Were this effect to spread, and the northern ice fields melt, a rise in sea levels of up to seven meters would occur. This would not simply overwhelm low-lying countries like Bangladesh, but also major western cities such as London, Rome and New York (People & Planet).
In the next 15 years, displacement, disruption to agriculture and food supplies, and damage and destruction to infrastructure would be likely to lead to economic and political instability, both within countries and across international borders, and even to wars as environmental refugees seek new homes and countries clash over scarce water and food supplies. The industrial countries also could find themselves under immense pressure from huge numbers of environmental refugees from the developing world (Christian Aid).

By the end of the century, rising sea levels and crop failures could create 150 million refugees. Even in the UK, 5 million people are at risk from increased flood and storm damage (Operation Noah).