Climate change information for effective adaptation : a practioner's manual

Abstract

There is no doubt that our climate is changing. This will pose huge challenges to nations, organisations, enterprises, cities, communities and individuals. Developing countries will suffer most from the adverse consequences of climate change, and some highly vulnerable regions and people are already being affected. There is increasing agreement that if temperatures rise by no more than 2 °C the earth’s integrity can be preserved and many of the potentially grave consequences of climate change could be avoided. This threshold is associated with per capita emissions of approximately two tonnes of CO2 equivalents1 each year. In terms of reducing greenhouse gases (GHG), the immense challenge this poses is shown in Figure 1. Industrialised countries, and soon also developing countries, need to sharply reduce their emissions.