Search the SPREP Catalogue

It is 2020 and the world is at a crossroads on climate change. The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to 1.5ºC–2ºC above preindustrial temperatures. Current international climate responses will not meet these targets. Thus, urgent and widespread action is indispensable. Recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports showed a significant difference in the degree of impact between 1.5ºC and 2ºC of warming. Indeed, the 1.5ºC goal is the safest for most of Asia and the Pacific.

The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming 1.5ºC–2ºC above preindustrial temperatures. Current international climate responses will not meet these targets. Thus, urgent and widespread action is indispensable. recent Intergovernmental Panelon Climate change reports showed significant difference in degree of impact between 1.5ºC–2ºC of warming. Indeed, the 1.5ºCgoal is the safest for most of Asia and the Pacific. And then the covid19 pandemic entered the equation, shutting down economies and claiming almost 1,163,459 lives by 28 Oct 2020. Its devastating impacts leave the world struggling toe rebuild. After the covid19., the world must choose the path toward a safer, inclusive, dignifies and resilient future.

In response to the dire social and economic consequences predicted to result from climate change—especially for the most vulnerable populations in developing countries— policy makers around the world are working toward a new long-term international framework to address this global challenge. Asia and the Pacific has the world’s most dynamic economies but also the greatest number of people at risk from climate change as well as the fastest-growing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs)—the cause of global warming. Unless Asia and the rest of the world act to stabilize GHG emissions, poverty reduction efforts will experience new threats from climate-induced risks to the health, safety, and productivity of the poor. Such impacts are already affecting populations across the region, so even with aggressive actions, measures are needed to protect the most vulnerable from the adverse effects of sea level rise, melting glaciers, more frequent and severe climate-related natural disasters, greater variability of rainfall, and other predicted consequences of climate change.