URGENCY TO ACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE

July 15, 2022

FAILURE TO ACT ON CLIMATE WILL COST TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND MILLIONS OF LIVES

The fact is if we don’t act soon to curtail emissions, millions of people will be displaced, poverty will be exacerbated, our national security will be at greater risk, and animal and plant species will face extinction. Tackling the climate crisis is urgent.

Without immediate climate action:
- 100 million people worldwide will be pushed into poverty by 2030, and several hundred million people would be susceptible to poverty by 2050.
- 143 million people will be displaced from their homes by 2050.
- 30% of all animal and plant species will go extinct by 2070.
- Between 800 million and 3 billion people globally could face chronic water scarcity because of drought, and crop yields will decline in many places.
- 230 million people will be living in annual flood zones, including the 40% of the U.S. population that lives in coastal counties.
If global warming reaches 1.5°C in the near-term, the world will face a high risk of “cascading tipping points” that irreversibly lock in catastrophic levels of warming, including a massive dieback in the Amazon, thawing boreal forests that will release dangerous carbon and methane, and massive collapsing ice sheets.

In July 2022, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said, “The only true path to energy security, stable power prices, prosperity and a livable planet lies in abandoning polluting fossil fuels and accelerating the renewables-based energy transition. […] Current national commitments will lead to an increase of almost 14 per cent this decade. That spells catastrophe.”
In March 2022, UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen, warned that, “We are in an emergency headed for a disaster. Climate change isn’t lurking around the corner ready to pounce, it’s already upon us, raining down blows on billions of people.”