A third of humanity face life in climate hotspots, scientists warn
About 1.6 billion people now live in climate change “vulnerability hotspots”, a number that could double by 2050 if fossil fuels continue being used at the rate they are today, scientists warned at the COP27 U.N. climate talks in Egypt.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate diplomacy: COP 27
The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) produced a groundbreaking agreement to create a “loss and damage” fund to help developing nations cope with the impact of climate change.
But the conference, held from Nov. 6 to Nov. 20, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, fell short of a hoped-for agreement to speed reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.