Climate change is one of the most serious environmental and economic threats facing the world today.

Irrespective of the effectiveness of current policies in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, the world will experience climate change. This is likely to have far-reaching effects on all aspects of the world's environment, economy and society including:

Temperature increases:

Average global surface temperatures have increased by 0.6°C over the last century. The ten hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the warming trends of the last 50 years cannot be solely due to natural climate variations, but factors in the effects of human activity and the resulting emissions. Current climate models predict that global temperatures will rise by a further 1.4 to 5.8°C by the end of the 21st century. This may not seem significant but it will result in drought and flooding which will affect people's health and way of life, and cause the irreversible loss of many species of plants and animals.

Sea level rise and Environmetal Refugees:

Sea Level is expected to rise by between 40 cm and 90cm by 2100 due to thermal expansion of the oceans as temperatures rise and the impact of melting land ice is felt This will threaten the existence of some small island states and put millions of people at risk.

Poor countries will suffer most:

60% of the additional 80 million people projected to be at risk of flooding are expected to be in Southern Asia (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar) and 20% in South East Asia (from Thailand to Vietnam, including Indonesia and the Philippines)

Food production:

Africa is expected to experience significant reductions in cereal yields, as will the Middle East and India. And an additional 290 million people could be exposed to malaria by the 2080's, with China and Central Asia likely to see the largest increase in risk.

Water Resources, Drought and Flooding:

In some areas, water resources for drinking and irrigation will be affected by reduced rainfall or as ground water in coastal zones suffers from salination as sea levels rise. People's lives may be put at risk from an increased frequency of droughts and flooding. An additional three billion people could suffer increased water stress by 2080. Northern Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent will be the worst affected

Stress to Eco-systems and Biodiversity:

By the 2070's, large parts of northern Brazil and central southern Africa could lose their tropical forests because of reduced rainfall and increased temperatures. If this happens, global vegetation which currently absorbs carbon dioxide at the rate of some 2-3 gigatonnes of carbon (GtC) per year will become a carbon source generating about 2 GtC per year by the 2070's and further adding to carbon dioxide build up in the atmosphere. (Current global man-made emissions are about 6-7 GtC per year).

Extreme Weather Events:

Hurricanes, Tsunami's etc, the magnitude of those experiences in recent years, will continue to ravage continents. The related damage to infrastructure will be significant and in certain circumstances will have devastating effects on smaller economies that arent adequately prepared for it.

Rising Insurance premiums:

The potential impacts of climate change on the insurance industry can already be seen in the bottom line. While no individual natural event can be directly attributed to climate change, the increase in incidence and ferocity of storms and hurricanes is increasingly being linked to climate shifts resulting from human induced global warming. Growing concern over climate change is leading some insurers to provide incentives for actions that mitigate the effects of climate change.