UNDERSTANDING URBAN CLIMATE ACTION
Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates. Changes observed in Earth’s climate since the early 20th century are primarily driven by human activities. These have increased heat-trapping greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in the atmosphere leading to a rise in Earth’s average surface temperature. The long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities is commonly referred to as global warming. Natural processes also contribute to climate change, including internal variability (e.g., cyclical ocean patterns like El Niño, La Niña, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation) and external forcings (e.g., volcanic activity, changes in the sun’s energy output, variations in Earth’s orbit).2 The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article 1, defines climate change as ‘a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between climate change attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition and climate variability attributable to natural causes.3 Increased concentrations of GHG such as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere, mainly from anthropogenic or human activities, are primary causes of global warming and climate change. The anthropogenic sources of increasing GHG emissions include burning fossil fuels to meet energy needs in industries, transport, and buildings, along with agriculture, waste, deforestation, and forest degradation. Global surface temperature was 1.09°C higher in 2011-2020 than 1850-1900 and will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all the considered emissions scenarios. Human-induced warming reached approximately 1.07°C (likely between 0.8°C to 1.3°C) from 1850–1900 to 20102019, with the last four decades being successively warmer than any decade that preceded it since 1850.4 This has resulted in the melting of polar ice and glaciers. Further, warming greater than the global average has already been experienced in many regions and seasons, with higher average warming over land than the ocean.5 According to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average global surface temperature in July 2021 was the highest for the month of July since 1880. Though warming has not been uniform across the planet, the upward trend in the globally averaged temperature shows that more areas are warming than cooling.6 According to NOAA’s 2020 Annual Climate Report, the combined land and ocean temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.13 degrees Fahrenheit (0.08 degrees Celsius) per decade since 1880; however, the average rate of increase since 1981 (0.18°C / 0.32°F) has been more than twice that rate. The ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 2005, and 7 of the 10 have occurred just since 2014.7 Climate change impacts are a result of multiple factors such as rising temperatures, increase in atmospheric CO2, shifting rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and extreme events such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves. Climate change has impacted the terrestrial biological systems, affecting flora and fauna in major biodiversity hotspots across the globe. Ocean acidification has adverse effects on marine life. Similarly, food systems have also been impacted due to temperature anomalies and increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, which has led to lesser production of crops and other food items further worsening the issue of food security. Higher temperature also increases the production of ground-level ozone, which is a key contributor to smog. Since many GHGs are also long and short-lived pollutants, the air quality has also deteriorated, leading to severe health impacts on humans.8 According to the Climate Risk Index 2021, altogether, between 2000 and 2019, over 4,75,000 people lost their lives as a direct result of more than 11,000 extreme weather events globally, with losses amounting to around US$ 2.56 trillion (in purchasing power parities). Climate impacts, such as increasingly intense and frequent extreme weather events, disproportionately affect people in developing countries, threatening lives and livelihoods, human security, and sustainable development.
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