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achievements of this COP24 are likely to be highly insufficient to meet the urgency of the
challenge.
And yet it is so crucial to reduce GHG emissions (climate change mitigation) and to finance
adaptation to the effect of climate change in most vulnerable countries (typically development
countries). Climate change is having economic and socio-political effects. Food security is
already being impacted in a number of African countries and elsewhere, and researchers are
studying suggestive links between climate change and an increased likelihood of military conflict
and internal (within States) and international migration. Indeed, we're already seeing the first
climate refugees as people are displaced by rising sea levels, melting Arctic permafrost and other
extreme weather. Climate change does not only affect humans. Warming ocean temperatures are
increasing the frequency of coral reef bleaching; warmer, drier weather means that forests in
some regions are no longer recovering from wildfires and wildlife habitats around the world are
becoming less hospitable to animals.
We are responsible for climate change. While a wide range of natural phenomena can radically
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affect the climate, publishing climate scientists overwhelmingly agree that global warming and
resultant climate effects that we're witnessing are the result of human activity. It is therefore for
us to take action, in the narrow window of time still available before we enter an unchartered
territory, marked by a completely unpredictable climate with consequences difficult to imagine.

Written by:
Mr. Bernardo Sala
Methodological writer for AESA Europe;
GCCA+ climate expert in Ivory Coast

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For the latest report, check https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/. The report has been prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC was created to provide policymakers with regular
scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation (i.e.,
GHG emission reductions) options.

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