Global efforts needed to fight climate change, save planet

Rising sea levels

Climate change has two main impacts, he said. On the one hand, it contributes to the rise in global temperatures, which, in turn, leads to increased sea levels, melting of polar ice, and so on.

On the other hand, because of global warming, certain areas are experiencing a significant increase in extreme weather events, including intensifying temperature variations, enhanced precipitation, and a rise in severe storms or hurricanes.

Extreme weather events can have a significant impact on the comfort, efficiency, and safety of individuals in their personal lives and work, Qu said.

"They also possess strong physical destructive properties, which can result in significant property damage caused by accidents such as floods and landslides. In the longer term and on a larger scale, extreme weather events have the potential to reshape global geopolitical relations, because some countries may even be submerged by the rising sea levels."

Monika Tothova, an economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said extreme weather events and changing weather patterns have implications on agricultural production as well as the processing and transportation of food.

Some geographic areas might become more hostile to agricultural production, while weather conditions in others might make them more suitable, she said.

Transportation links might also be affected if, for example, rivers used to transport goods become seasonally too shallow to allow navigation.

"Overall, the keyword remains 'uncertainty': Uncertainty of changing temperatures, rainfall, and weather patterns," she said. "Thus, the food systems' transformation is also aimed at making them more resilient to the effects of climate change. There is much ongoing work in the area to increase the resilience of the agricultural sector by enhancing adaptation and mitigation measures."

Precise and comprehensive estimates of damages caused by extreme weather events — for example, recurrent drought in East Africa and floods in Pakistan — are usually not immediately available, Tothova said.

However, they impact not only total production and thus the availability of the food, but also the livelihoods of farmers, with particularly detrimental effects on small-scale farmers who often lack sufficient resilience capacity, she said.

Analysis done by the FAO shows that climate change will have an increasingly adverse impact on many regions of the world. Those in low latitudes are likely to be hit the hardest. This means that countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will be disproportionately at risk.

"As many of these countries already suffer from poverty, food insecurity, and various forms of malnutrition, the cumulative impact of climate-related shocks as well as shocks caused by other factors, such as geopolitical changes, can exacerbate the challenges," she said.

Xu Qinhua, a professor of Renmin University of China and honorary professor of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said climate change is also "a multiplier of threats" that could exacerbate existing national security challenges.

It may increase regional competition for resources and the demand for military actions, posing a threat to national stability and security, she said.

Xu anticipated that the global decarbonization pressures would also intensify geopolitical tensions. According to her research, 11 countries, including India and Pakistan, would be financially vulnerable to climate change, leading to increasing risks of unrest and migration, and demand for foreign aid in the future.

Ma with the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs said the threat posed by climate change is indeed urgent, and it is a positive step that more than 190 parties have signed the Paris Agreement with a goal to combat climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees above preindustrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. Nearly 150 countries and regions worldwide have made commitments to achieving carbon neutrality.

"But meanwhile, the world is facing the impacts of the pandemic, volatility in the energy market, and increasing geopolitical tensions, leading major economies to pay more attention to energy security, food security, and supply chain security. This makes global efforts to address climate change extremely challenging," he said.