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I am going to start off by researching the SDG goal #13, Climate Action. Within this goal, I am interested in researching environmental protection, green house emissions, and global warming. This goal intrigues me because it focuses on the damages of our earth and how they can be fixed or altered.

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Official Research Question (research question one)

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Official Research Question (research question one)

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How are extreme natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, and droughts linked to global warming in China, and how will these natural disasters look in the future?

Why I should use this question:

This question resolves around my whole pad let research, and it is a very relevant question in today's climate crisis.

Why I should not use this question:

I think that this research question would be better if I didn't limit the natural disasters to just one region, however I think that would make the question way too broad.

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Abstract

In the summer of 2003, a heat wave swept Europe and caused more than 70 000 additional fatalities [J.-M. Robine et al., C. R. Biologies 331 (2008)]. Global warming and climate change is no longer a prophecy to be fulfilled, as strong heat waves and typhoons, as well as severe rainfalls, are becoming more severe. Extreme weather and climate events in the world, especially over Europe and North America, are widely studied and frequently reported in the media. These events may be related to the ongoing climate change. In this NSR forum, active researchers specialized in this field gather to discuss the climate and weather changes in China. They present the current changes, identify knowledge gaps, discuss the research difficulties, and propose ways forward to better serve the society with climate science.

Ying Sun

Professor at the National Climate Center of the China Meteorological Administration, China

Qiuhong Tang

Professor at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Zhongwei Yan

Professor at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Jing Yang

Professor at the Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management, faculty of Geographic Science of Beijing Normal University, China

Panmao Zhai

Professor at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences of the China Meteorological Administration, and the current Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group I, China

Tianjun Zhou

Professor at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Deliang Chen (Chair)

Professor at the University of Gothenburg, NSR Editorial Board member, Sweden

CHANGES IN CHINA

Chen: Can we first take a look at how extreme weather and climate in China has been changing against the global warming background?

Yan: Over the past century, global warming is a fact and China has been warming faster than the world average. The world average temperature rise within the past century was less than 1°C, but for China, it was 1.3-1.6°C according to the updated studies.

Greater temperature rise leads to stronger impacts. In China, heat waves are increasing; severe rainfalls are increasing; light rainfalls are decreasing. The increase of extreme heat waves and rainfalls means that the meteorological factors for both drought and flood are also increasing. But of course, whether the meteorological factors will lead to disastrous droughts and floods also depends on how we act to adapt to the climate change.

In 2013, a 2-month heat wave shrouded East China. Researchers estimated the total economic loss in Nanjing to be around 3.4% of the city's annual GDP. The economic loss calculated here includes both direct and indirect losses. The modern society is a highly connected complex system. The impact of a local disaster can spread to the whole area and diverse industries through the industrial chains and social networks, causing cascading indirect losses. Moreover, the impacts of heat waves

In China, heat waves are increasing; severe rainfalls are increasing; light rainfalls are decreasing.

-Zhongwei Yan

are not limited to economic loss, but also include damage to human health, causing more diseases and deaths of certain groups of people.

Yang: The increased connectivity, complexity and population density of the modern society lead to increasing vulnerability of the system, which means that extreme events of a similar level could cause damages that are more serious than before. On the other hand, it also means that when we study the extreme events, we need to pay more attention to detailed changes in time/space, but not only the changes of basic indices such as frequency and intensity.

As an example, for extreme high temperature events, the influential area, the duration and the amplitude/frequency of variation over time are all important factors. In China, heat waves are becoming more frequent and affecting larger areas. The impact is not limited to East China, but also has extended to North China and even Northeast China in recent years. And for human health, large temperature fluctuations should also be considered, because they are usually more harmful than stable lasting high temperatures.

The same is true for typhoons. Changes in Western Pacific typhoons under global warming are less well studied compared with Atlantic hurricanes. But we can see that for the Pacific typhoons affecting China, the genesis number has dropped over some basins in recent decades but the intensity has increased. As the overall sea surface temperature increasing, the genesis positions and tracks of typhoons are also moving northward. More typhoons are hitting Japan and the Bohai Bay of China. Some strong ones can even reach Northeast China.

Zhou: Some Chinese scientists claim that the Earth has experienced dramatic climate changes over the billions of years of Earth's history, so that the current and coming climate change of several degrees is not a big deal. This is right. But the problem is that we humans are living on this planet right now. Several degrees' climate change can bring disasters to human society. When we talk about climate change issues, we should clarify the time scale. We are not talking about the Earth's ancient history, but the climate changes since the industrial revolution, which are to a large extent caused by human activities and will further affect human society.

ATTRIBUTION: CAUSES FOR THE CHANGES

Chen: Attribution is a major research topic. Professor Sun did many works in this field. Would you like to share your views?

Sun: Attribution aims at answering two kinds of questions: What are the causes of the observed changes in climate such as warming? Have human activities altered the probability and/or magnitude of a particular type of extreme event like the one that has just occurred that caused large loss and damage?

Attribution relies on both observational data and climate models. We first assume that the models are trustworthy enough to well describe the relevant physical processes, and then compare model simulated climate responses to different forcings with the observations to determine if observed changes are due to particular forcings. We also compare model simulations with or without anthropogenic forcing to infer if anthropogenic activities have changed the odd or magnitude of particular type of extreme events.

Our work, as well as those conducted by other scientists, provide us the confidence to say that observed warming in China is predominately due to the emission of greenhouse gases. Additionally, the increase of warm temperature extremes and the decrease of cold extremes in the past decades are very likely to be attributed to human activities dominated by greenhouse gas emissions. The human influence also increases the probability of extreme high temperature events.

Attribution of other events is more complex. For instance, it has long been difficult for the models to reproduce the observed changes in precipitation. Models generally show poor performance in simulating heavy precipitation. Change in precipitation is still small relative to precipitation variability, making it hard to attribute changes in precipitation, especially at regional scale. With global warming, the anthropogenic forcing continues to increase and we are beginning to see influence of human activity on heavy precipitation in some regions.

Drought is even more complex. It generally lasts for a long time and involves more factors and indicators, so that the current attribution works are limited. Currently, attribution works within China are focused on the above mentioned fields. Works on typhoon and other events are relatively few.

MONSOON AND PRECIPITATION

Zhai: China is greatly influenced by the monsoon system, but the attribution of monsoon changes is still not clear. Many believe that changes in the monsoon system are basically natural and cannot be attributed to human activities. It is a complex system involving atmosphere-land-ocean interactions, atmospheric circulation, aerosol influences and more.

Extreme precipitation is strongly influenced by monsoon activity. If we cannot clarify human activity's influence on East Asian monsoons, it would be impossible to understand human influence on precipitation. Currently, different models give similar simulation results: precipitation in North China and southern China would both increase under the global warming

background. But observation shows that East Asian monsoons are generally weakening, with precipitation in southern China increasing and precipitation in North China decreasing.

If we cannot solve the attribution problems of changes in monsoon and precipitation, we will be unable to connect global warming with extreme events, or to make projections. 'Climate change' would remain a descriptive story but could not explain real-world weather and climate in our region.

It is complex and there are differences between East and South Asian monsoons.

-Ying Sun

Sun: I did some work on monsoons. It is complex and there are differences between East and South Asian monsoons. With global warming, the South Asian summer monsoon precipitation is substantially influenced by thermodynamic factors, whereas summer monsoon precipitation in East Asia is more closely associated with dynamic factors such as the enhanced low-level southerly winds in southern China. My personal view is that, in the coming decades, the monsoon system will be co-influenced by natural and human factors; but as the human influence increases, when global warming exceeds a certain level, the influence of human activity would become more obvious and significantly affect the monsoon system.

Yan: At a recent conference of the Climate Science for Service Partnership China (CSSP-China), we also discussed the issues of monsoons and precipitation. We thought that a major direction for monsoon attribution would be to attribute the abnormal behaviors of the atmospheric circulation. In many state-of-the-art climate models, the summer monsoon does not reach North China, so we cannot see the monsoon's contribution to the precipitation of North China. If we can identify causes for circulation changes, we may be able to better attribute monsoon and precipitation. Finally, by increasing models' spatial resolution and through downscaling, we may improve our chances of successfully attributing precipitation change and reducing uncertainty in future projections of precipitation.

DROUGHTS AND FLOODS

Chen: Droughts and floods are more complex. They are based on precipitation but also involve the whole water cycle and many hydrological factors, including those on the underlying surface. We have a hydrological expert, Professor Tang, here to give some insight.

Tang: Defining a suitable index for drought is the key in drought research. Several years ago, there were many studies indicating that the drought level is fast rising. But many researchers disapproved of this conclusion because those studies used an index that overemphasizes the role of the rising temperature for evapotranspiration. A Nature paper examined this issue and reported that the estimated drought rising rate would be much

The hydrological community has not determined a universally good index to assess drought.

-Qiuhong Tang

smaller if we used another index that more realistically estimates evapotranspiration. This reflects the complexity of drought. The hydrological community has not determined a universally good index to assess drought.

Floods are also very complex. Extreme rainfall is a major trigger, but there are other influencing factors. The impact of climate change is broad. It can raise the intensity of extreme rainfall. It can also raise the sea level, trigger storm surges and change river morphology. For inland cities, extreme rainfall itself can trigger waterlogging; for riverside areas, flood can be result of severe rainfall in the upstream areas; for coastal areas, flood is a mixed result of the sea level, the storm surges and the precipitation. That is to say, climate change can trigger multiple changes, which collectively form hazards.

Another point is that, from a socio-economic perspective, we are particularly interested in the negative consequences of drought and flood. For example, droughts and extreme heat during the growing season may affect crop growth and reduce yields, so we are particularly concerned about the extreme weather disasters in certain seasons and certain agriculture areas. This is important if we want to benefit society with climate science.

Different disciplines do not share the same concept for using the term of 'attribution'.

-Panmao Zhai

Zhai: I agree that different drought indices can give quite different results. Drought is a climate event with relatively large time and space scales, so if we can pinpoint an appropriate drought index, the certainty of drought attribution would be greatly improved.

For climate change impact attribution, there is a problem that different disciplines and different organizations do not share the same concept. For instance, many studies in the hydrologic community simply attribute the impacts to local human activity and climate influence, without considering that human activity also contributes to their 'climate influence'. They consider only the local human activities, without including the large-scale influences relevant to human activities, such as the global warming trend caused by carbon dioxide emission. In this way, it is not possible to link to projections for the future. There are many other similar concept differences, even between the IPCC Working Groups I and II.

Tang: Exactly. The hydrologic community used to treat climate influence as natural impact, and influences of land use/cover change and human water use as human-induced impact. This treatment is arbitrary because human activity contributes to climate change and natural variability can also affect land use/cover change and human water use.

To address this problem, an emerging discipline called 'Global Change Hydrology' is trying to build a new framework to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for the changes in the terrestrial water cycle under global change. In this new framework, the water cycle is influenced by a combination of multiple aspects including climate change, land use/cover change, and human water use, and all these aspects are driven by natural and human-induced forces. Human influence on the water cycle includes impacts on several aspects: firstly, climate change caused by human activities; secondly, human-induced land use/cover change, such as the influences of China's afforestation activities on local water cycle and water resources; and thirdly, the influences of human water use such as irrigation and dam building.

Chen: I think this is an important issue. We should try to promote this new framework, the success of which may be helpful for the development of China's hydrological research.

A WARMER AND WETTER NORTHWEST CHINA

Zhai: A recent hot topic is that Northwest China, including Xinjiang and part of Tibet is becoming warmer and wetter. Is this trend attributable to human activity and global warming? How long and to what extent will this trend last? These are questions worth answering. The warming and wetting may be beneficial in some sense, offering economic development opportunities for the western and plateau regions. So the related research has both science and social significance.

Sun: This is an issue worth further studying and it is also a complex systematic issue involving temperature, water cycle, atmospheric circulation and the interactions among these factors. Our effort to recognize the contributions of diverse factors is just beginning.

EVOLVING DIRECTIONS OF CLIMATE MODELS

Tang: I noticed that many event attribution works followed similar methodology. They do numerical model simulations with or without the influence of external anthropogenic and natural forcing in the system. If the simulated occurrence probability of a certain extreme event with anthropogenic forcing in the model is significantly higher than the result without such forcing, rising from 'impossible' to possible, they conclude that human influence has changed the probability of such extreme event. Many works on human influence on precipitation, heat waves and other extreme events were done in this way. Because modelling climate extremes is inherently uncertain, I doubt that in this way we can tune the model so that for many extreme events, we tend to get positive results and attribute them to human activities. I think modelling uncertainty is critical in event attribution.

Sun: This method was first proposed by Peter Stott of the UK Met Office and his colleagues in a 2003 Nature paper, and is now widely used. A key prerequisite for this method to work is that the climate model has good performance in reproducing these extreme events and the related physical processes. If this prerequisite not met, then the caveat in the calculated results will need to be understood and carefully documented to avoid mis-interpretation. On the other hand, response of extreme events to human influence may differ, depending on the types of events, their space and time scales and physical processes involved. It is generally easier to identify anthropogenic influence at larger scales because of smaller variability and thus larger signal-noise ratio at these scales. It is important to consider all caveats when interpreting results of attribution works.

Yang: You mentioned that we have to assume that the models are realistic. But in my study, I noticed that the models are usually not good enough to simulate historical extremes. There are two major problems currently: the resolution is not fine enough to resolve the extreme and the sub-grid parameterization is not that effective and short of scale aware. This leads to some uncertainties in the attribution and projection research.

For example, in infrastructure construction, for disaster reduction and prevention, we need to set an absolute threshold of extreme precipitation, which means setting how much precipitation the building should be able to bear. But the current models are not good at absolute intensity simulation and it is difficult to catch extreme rainfalls heavier than 100 mm. Even though we can tune the model and successfully catch the total amount of extreme rainfall, the physical details in the results are very likely to be wrong. For example, two models give a similar total rainfall amount, but if we look at the vertical profile of atmospheric temperature and moisture, or the vertical distribution of clouds given by the two models, they can be quite different, which could cause large differences for climate feedback between them. Given the limitations of models, trustable projections are still challenging.

There are two major problems currently: the resolution is not fine enough to resolve the extreme and the sub-grid parameterization is not that effective and short of scale aware.

-Jing Yang

Chen: You talked about the problems of the models. They are very meaningful and I think the problems can be summarized in three points: resolution, sub-grid parameterization, and the ability to represent physical processes.

Among these points, using downscaling methods to increase the space resolution of models is relevant to the downstream applications. Only when we are able to increase the resolution and deal with a region as small as a city, are we able to guide the industries and city constructions with climate science.

Zhou: For downscaling, the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) under the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) plays an important role by acting as a bridge connecting global scale, regional scale and local scale. I am confident with the future of regional scale. With the ever-increasing resolution, in particular the quick development of convection permitting models in recent years, our definition for regional scale has downscaled from the 50-km scale to the kilometer scale, and will definitely be further refined.

In Sweden, research organizations and private enterprises are tightly connected.

-Deliang Chen

SERVICE TO SOCIETY

Zhou: Currently, climate change research and social needs are separated in China. Downscaling may become a connecting bridge between them. To create climate research based societal service products, scientists need to cooperate with policymakers

and other stakeholders. We cannot fulfill their demands without understanding their needs.

On the other hand, in China, social sciences and natural sciences are also separated. They use separated funding and language systems. Social scientists and natural scientists seldom communicate with each other and their limited communications are hardly smooth. This is also a barrier for application of climate change research. Future Earth is an international research program, which aims to provide critical knowledge to face the challenges posed by global environmental change. Future Earth introduced into its projects a new concept of research approach, which highlights 'co-design, co-produce and co-deliver'. This new approach involves stakeholders from the very beginning and aims to fill the gap between science and its supposed end-users.

Chen: That is right. In Sweden, research organizations and private enterprises are tightly connected. Researchers offer training and guidance to the enterprises, and many enterprise managers are invited to participate in research funding review and research proposal drafting. These communications set a solid foundation for climate science to serve society.

Zhou: CSSP-China is a scientific research project that is building a basis for services to support climate and weather-resilient economic development and social welfare through strong, strategic partnerships harnessing UK scientific expertise. It is supported by the Newton Fund and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) UK-China Research Innovation Partnership Fund. Through CSSP-China, strong partnerships between the UK Met Office, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other key institutes within China and the UK has been developed. The Fund also supports Chinese and British scientists to visit institutes in each other's country.

Before this program, East Asian climate researchers were generally Chinese, Japanese or Korean. This program broke that structure. Now, British researchers are interested in East Asian climate and they have brought a number of advanced research methods and ideas to this field. On the other hand, this program also aims to promote application of basic science in the fields of climate prediction and climate projection, and to tighten the connections between scientists and diverse industries such as agriculture, forestry and hydrology. CSSP-China is already changing the thinking mode of many Chinese scientists.

Tang: I have visited the agency responsible for managing flood risk in UK with the support of the Newton Advanced Fellowship. During this visit, I noticed that British insurance industry is tightly connected with the climate change community. The insurance companies offer insurance services for construction of various infrastructures based on assessments of possible economic losses caused by potential natural hazards. This practice is still being developed in China. Currently, China's main disaster relief policy is post-disaster government aid. It may face increasing funding pressure as climate risk increases. A national flood insurance system or climate risk insurance system may be needed and climate science could contribute to the risk management efforts.

Zhou: Climate risk assessment is necessary for many construction projects, including infrastructure construction - for example the drainage pipes of a city should be able to withstand a rainstorm once in how many years? In city planning of coastal cities, how high a breakwater should we build for Shanghai and Hong Kong? - as well as many other conditions.

Another example is construction of airports. As the temperature rises, the lifting force the atmosphere can provide to the aircraft drops. If the runway is not built long enough, heavy aircrafts would be unable to take off. There have already been severe flight cancellation events caused by extreme high temperatures in the US. So, quantitative assessment of the climate factors within airport construction has become regular in many countries, but it seems not yet in China. The Paris Agreement set a goal to keep global warming well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. A recent study found that the half-degree additional warming will lead to a shift toward higher extreme temperature in five Chinese sites: Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Lasa and Urumqi. For both 1.5° and 2.0°C scenarios, the number of weight-restriction days will increase significantly at three airports: Beijing, Shanghai, and Lasa.

Climate risk assessment is necessary for many construction projects.

-Tianjun Zhou

Sun: Actually, such kinds of assessment also exist in China, but are often done in the provincial institutes and they are more related to the local climate service.

Yan: I think it is necessary to call for governmental policies to demand mandatory climate change risk assessment in major infrastructure and construction projects. In that way, we can improve the professionalism and realize the value of the assessments.

Yang: Besides the preventive risk assessment, we also lack disaster-related data in China. In August 2019, typhoon Lekima hit Zhejiang province in China. The rainstorm directly submerged a village, causing more than 20 deaths. Scientists have investigated that village and found that this place itself has very high risk of natural disasters and large vulnerability, indicating that it is actually not suitable for human settlement.

Beginning in April 2019, the Ministry of Emergency Management of China started a national disaster risk survey. This survey aims to get accurate historical data for each county of China. Hopefully, these data will provide a solid foundation for future scientific research and disaster prevention and reduction works.

Yan: We lack necessary data for disaster risk assessments. For the meteorological and hydrological studies, the issue is that sometimes the data exist but are not open. It will be beneficial if in the future, meteorological and hydrological data as well as those of many other fields could be freely open to researchers and the public, to the extent feasible.

SUMMARY: VISION AND OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH

Chen: Climate system is a non-linear system. Its behavior is mainly decided by two factors: external forcings and internal feedbacks. What climate change research wants to do is to reliably project future scenarios under different external forcings, to inform our society about consequences of different human choices, such as different levels of carbon dioxide emission. Among these different future scenarios, some are relatively 'good' and some are 'not so good'. We can then choose the behaviors that can lead our society to the better futures. In the climate change field, we often talk about 'resilience'. But our aim should not be to spring back to what it was, but to move forward to a better future.

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Extreme weather and climate events in China under changing climate

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In the summer of 2003, a heat wave swept Europe and caused more than 70 000 additional fatalities [J.-M. Robine et al., C. R. Biologies331 (2008)]. Global warming and climate change is no longer a prophecy to be fulfilled, as strong heat waves and ...

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I decided to research more on the impact that climate change has on different regions of the world. In addition, I decided to also look at how these different regions contribute to the climate crisis as well as how they are working to fight against it.

I hope by doing this I can narrow down my research into a specific region!

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I think I want to research Global Warming which must be addressed to reach SDG Goal 13, Climate Action. I will focus on Asia and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

I want to research this because I feel like this is a huge base on a lot of other issues in our world. Not only that, but Climate Action contributes to the health of our society, along with the ecosystems of other living things. I think it is our responsibility to take care of the earth that we live on.

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One thing that I have often heard was the effect of climate change on natural disasters and how much more often they are occurring. This made me want to research more into it, so I started my research there!

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Something interesting that I found on the SDGS goal website was that Highly vulnerable regions experience 15x higher mortality rates from disasters compared to very low vulnerability regions. And over time, of course, if not action is taken towards climate action these natural disasters will occur way more.

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I know that climate action effects the natural disasters, but how much does it really effect it? Is it a large increase of natural disasters, or is it a small difference. I decided to research this question further.

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Climate action and disaster risk reduction

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The climate emergency is the biggest economic, social, and environmental threat facing the planet and humanity. Climate-related disasters have almost doubled compared to the previous twenty years. This has exacerbated inequalities within and between countries, with those contributing least to global emissions often experiencing the worst impacts of the climate emergency.

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According to the vision of humanity, data has revealed an increase of natural disasters on a global scale from 39 incidents in 1960 to 396 in 2019.

They also state that the likelihood of weather related natural disasters increases because of changes in climate conditions. This is especially true in the warming of global temperatures.

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Increase in Natural Disasters on a Global Scale by Ten Times

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The world has witnessed a tenfold increase in natural disasters since the 1960s, the 2020 Ecological Threat Register (ETR) shows.

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Seeing this really intrigued me, however I've noticed a big concern within climate action is mostly around Global Warming, which from what I know is the increase in temperature of the earth. Because of this, I decided to turn my small deep dive onto Global Warming.

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Are major natural disasters increasing? | USAFacts

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Nine out of the 10 years with the highest number of natural disasters occurred in the last decade.

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Because global warming has such an impact on the increase of natural disasters as well as other issues, I decided to dive more into it. According to the United Nations, global warming is the rise in temperature of the earth, which over time changes weather patterns and disrupts the usual balance of nature. This poses as a risk to humans as well as other life.

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Africa has been bearing a heavy burden from climate change and having expensive adaptations to the essential climate adaptions.

Many parts of Africa have been a victim of severe natural disasters including flooding, cyclones, and even droughts.

Temperature increases in Africa slightly above the global average

Multi-year droughts continued in northwest Africa in 2023

Extreme floods caused severe losses and damages

African countries face increasing climate change bill

Investment in early warnings will protect lives and economies

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Africa faces disproportionate burden from climate change and adaptation costs

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Temperatures: In Africa, 2023 was in the top three warmest years in the 124-year record, depending on the dataset used. The mean temperature was 0.61° C higher than the 1991-2020 average and 1.23° C above the 1961-1990 long-term baseline.

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How has Africa participated in the Climate Crisis

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How has Africa participated in the Climate Crisis

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According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Africa is only responsible for a small fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, they are still suffering greatly from climate change.

Some things that this is harming:

Food security

Ecosystems and economies

fueling displacements and migration

worsening the threat of conflict over dwindling resources.

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The State of the Climate in Africa 2022 report shows that the rate of temperature increase in Africa has accelerated in recent decades, with weather- and climate-related hazards becoming more severe. And yet financing for climate adaptation is only a drop in the ocean of what is needed.

More than 110 million people on the continent were directly affected by weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2022, causing more than US$ 8.5 billion in economic damages. There were a reported 5 000 fatalities, of which 48% were associated with drought and 43% were associated with flooding, according to the Emergency Event Database. But the true toll is likely to be much higher because of under-reporting.

"Africa is responsible for less than 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it is the continent which is the least able to cope with the negative impacts of climate change. Heatwaves, heavy rains, floods, tropical cyclones, and prolonged droughts are having devastating impacts on communities and economies, with increasing numbers of people at risk," said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.

"There are big gaps in weather observations in Africa and early warning services are woefully adequate. We are determined to close those gaps and ensure that life-saving early warnings reach everyone," he said.

The report, produced jointly with the African Union Commission and Africa Climate Policy Centre of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), was released during the Africa Climate Summit, which also saw the launch of the Early Warnings For All in Africa Action Plan. Kenya, which is hosting the summit, also released its State of the Climate in Kenya in 2022 report.

"Africa, like other regions, has come to terms with the reality that climate change is already happening. Left untamed, the coming decades and years would easily be characterized by severe climate-induced pressure on the continent's economies, livelihoods and nature," says H.E. Ambassador Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission.

"Given Africa's high exposure, fragility and low adaptive capacity, the effects of climate change are expected to be felt more severely. People's health, peace, prosperity, infrastructure, and other economic activities across many sectors in Africa are exposed to significant risks associated with climate change," she writes in the report.

Agriculture is the mainstay of Africa's livelihoods and national economies - supporting more than 55% of the labor force. But its agricultural productivity growth has declined by 34% since 1961 due to climate change. This decline is the highest compared to what other regions of the world have experienced.

Projected annual food imports by African countries are expected to increase by about a factor of three, from US$ 35 billion to US$ 110 billion by 2025.

The level of loss and damage, and therefore the costs incurred, will depend on many factors, including the level of ambition of global mitigation actions and the level of investment in adaptation at the local level. In a 4 °C warming world, with strong regional adaptation, "residual damages" costs equivalent to 3% of Africa's projected gross domestic product could be incurred annually by 2080.

The loss and damage costs in Africa due to climate change are projected to range between US$ 290 billion and US$ 440 billion, depending on the degree of warming, according to the UNECA's African Climate Policy Centre.

Climate change and the diminishing natural resource base could fuel conflicts for scarce productive land, water, and pastures, where farmer-herder violence has increased over the past 10 years due to growing land pressure, with geographic concentrations in many sub-Saharan countries, according to the report.

The report, with an accompanying story map, is the result of a multi-agency effort. It includes input from the African Union Commission, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and contributions from African National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, WMO Regional Climate Centres, specialized United Nations agencies, the African Development Bank, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and numerous experts and scientists.

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Africa suffers disproportionately from climate change

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The State of the Climate in Africa 2022 report shows that the rate of temperature increase in Africa has accelerated in recent decades, with weather- and climate-related hazards becoming more severe. And yet financing for climate adaptation is only a drop in the ocean of what is needed.

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I noticed that while Africa does have a small impact on the climate crisis, they don't have a big enough impact to spark an interest for me. However, they are experiencing the consequences, and I believe that could hold a great point when looking at the effects of climate change.

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While Africa has contributed negligibly to the changing climate, with just about two to three percent of global emissions, it stands out disproportionately as the most vulnerable region in the world. This vulnerability is driven by the prevailing low levels of socioeconomic growth in the continent. While climate change is global, the poor are disproportionately vulnerable to its effects. This is because they lack the resources to afford goods and services they need to buffer themselves and recover from the worst of the changing climate effects. This is the case in Africa. To this end, UNEP Africa office's climate change work in the region focuses on supporting countries to put in place a structure for implementing their climate action commitments - popularly known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in a manner that meets leading socioeconomic priorities - food security, creation of income and enterprise opportunities for the youth and economic expansion.

This isachieved through driving climate and environment action as an investment opportunity and a source of socioeconomic improvement that is championed in high level member states policy forums like the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) and the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA). This tactic is backed by science and results in knowledge for policy as well as project actions- that have been tested and validated in other countries. In this approach, mitigation and adaptation are considered as complementary, with mitigation interventions primarily in clean energy aligned to power adaptation mostly in land-based actions like agriculture. This is opposed to classical approaches where mitigation and adaptation actions are considered largely in standalone silos. This approach also aligns to ensure Article 7 and 9 of the Paris Agreement that call for "parity between mitigation and adaptation" is realistically achieved on the continent.

Interventions focus on the following areas:
Project actions to inform and validate climate action trajectories that maximize environmental and socioeconomic benefits in the long run
Project actions are undertaken to test concepts and demonstrate valid trajectories that countries can invest in so as to drive their climate actions in a manner that unlocks leading socioeconomic priorities. The following are among the key projects:

EU-UNEP Africa Low Emissions Development Project: UNEP worked with seven countries to demonstrate empirically how NDCs implementation through amalgamating mitigation and adaptation actions can unlock both climate / environmental benefits and socioeconomic dividends, simultaneously. This work also shows countries how they can leverage analytical tools to forecast the long-term climate (change) and socioeconomic impacts of alternative NDCs implementation trajectories. And by this, ensure policies prioritise investment areas that maximise both climate and socioeconomic benefits. Through this work in just seven countries, results were used to call for a continental-wide shift at the highest level of continental environmental policy- the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). The shift of NDCs implementation policy approaches towards the maximising of climate and socioeconomic benefits simultaneously, catalysed continental wide demand driven transition to low emissions development pathways.

For more information: https://www.africaleds.org/

Supporting Implementation of the NDCs in the Waste Sector in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal: waste is a critical source of emissions and is prioritised in multiple NDCs across Africa. Through this project, we are supporting two countries - Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire, to develop tools and strategies that catalyse increased investments in implementing waste NDC priorities in a manner that simultaneously mitigate against dangerous emissions from waste, while also unlocking priority socioeconomic benefits. Through this work, countries have been supported to strengthen policy framework to reduce GHGs and Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) in the municipal solid waste sector. They have also been supported to enhance technical and operational capacity for data monitoring, reporting and verification in the waste sector to ensure investment in areas that mitigate the most prevalent waste emissions while unlocking income opportunities.

Lessons covering critical strategic, market and enterprise aspects that are highly adaptable to inform investments in other streams of waste recovery have been generated. These are being used to inform non-capital-intensive waste recovery investments of waste recovery areas that youth can invest in. More specifically, waste recovery to biofertilizer and to domestic fuel briquettes. These will provide crucial data and lessons to further inform enabling policy and operational actions that will bring in more youth across the continent to drive waste NDCs in a way that will substitute high emitting chemical fertiliser and the charcoal industries in the region.

NDCs Action Project: providing technical support to three countries - Ghana, Morocco, and Uganda to translate their NDC commitments into actionable implementation strategies capable of attracting implementation investments. This is to ensure that country NDCs can attract market driven investment by diverse groups that constitute African economies - including the youth, informal sector actors as well as formal corporations and drive implementation while also generating empirical data to feedback to relevant policy implementation programmes and ensure prioritisation of incentives on areas proven to work. Knowledge, experiences, and innovative lessons from the three countries are also cross-hybridized and shared continent-wide.

National Adaptation Plans (NAPS) readiness project: countries (Eswatini, Nigeria, Mauritania, Zimbabwe, Lesotho etc) are being supported to put in place structures and plans of action for dynamic adaptation planning that takes into account the dynamic nature of adaptation needs in context of their national development priorities, vulnerabilities and NDCs implementation prioritization. This planning establishes an adaptation baseline. It then narrows down priority areas, then works with the countries in formulating the relevant policy, institutional frameworks, partnerships, technological and technical capacity needs that will need to be in place to ensure most effective national adaptation planning and implementation investment in the long run.

Read more: https://www.africaleds.org/
Supporting countries to establish interagency policy taskforces for policy coherence towards optimal NDCs implementation
These policy innovations are to ensure implementation of policies across different line ministries incentivizes harmonious sectorial actions that meet both NDCs and development objectives. This is particularly critical because while the environment ministries are the custodian of environment action including reporting back progress to the UNFCCC, substantive actions that can impact environmental progress are undertaken under the leadership of other ministries such as the ministry of agriculture, energy, forestry, health, trade and industry etc. Work across these ministries therefore needs to be harmonized towards driving the NDCs. The Ecosystems Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA) policy-action initiative, provides an inclusive framework in line with section five of the Paris Agreement, to convene diverse actors drawn from different sectors for collaborative actions that drive NDCs implementation. EBAFOSA, being a countries driven framework, also provides a platform by which UNEP project actions that have demonstrated climate and socioeconomic benefits can be taken up by additional countries and integrated into ongoing actions of diverse stakeholders, and done with ongoing UNEP technical backstopping and guidance. In this way, EBAFOSA enhances the sustainability of UNEP project actions as it enables the sharing of lessons from a given project to be taken up by stakeholders across different countries that were not direct beneficiaries of a given project.

Read more: https://ebafosa.org/
Youth skills retooling to take up climate action as an opportunity to offer impactful solutions to society
Africa's population is over 60 percent youth, making them the most significant nonstate actor constituency on the continent in terms of numbers. Our work prioritizes tapping into the intrinsic abilities of their energy, creativity, skills and talents to drive climate action while unlocking opportunities for them. To this end, through what we call "Innovative Volunteerism", we are working with youth, by guiding and inspiring them to retool their skills, talents, ongoing work and interests and to work collaboratively towards opportunities in driving NDCs from an enterprise dimension - whilst focusing on clean energy and sustainable agriculture, which are priority economic and climate sectors of the continent. We are guiding the youth towards using existing enabling policies and to developing and integrating these climate solutions into their ongoing work and enterprises. Through this, they can then drive NDC implementation further, while obtaining practical, inexpensive productivity solutions and creating opportunities for themselves.

For example, we are guiding youth towards training on waste-recovery to wealth. They are integrating waste recovery to fuel briquettes and biofertilizer solutions, which are non-capital-intensive opportunities, into their enterprises. Youth are tapping markets by providing effective and affordable alternatives to contemporary non-sustainable solutions of charcoal and chemical fertilizers. Fuel briquettes are not only as affordable as charcoal, but burn better, do not catalyse deforestation nor produce smoke and cause indoor pollution, like charcoal does.

Youth are also being guided to train and develop mechanical solar dryers that dehydrate and preserve food in line with national standards benchmarks without producing emissions. These dryers convert postharvest losses to incomes. They are also made from locally available material, proving to be up to 200 percent cheaper than imported solutions. Other youths have developed ICT digital marketing systems that enable agro-value chain actors to efficiently access markets and supply chains from the comfort of their homes, on their phones. Through these value addition solutions, income increases of up to 150 percent have been registered at both farm level and at the post-farm gate.
Science and Knowledge to inform Policy
As a leading knowledge institution, our work continues to prioritise research and generating new knowledge on optimal ways in which the environment can be leveraged as a source of practical socioeconomic solutions. Our work continues to focus on how nature-based and waste solutions, all being sub-sets of climate action, can help countries drive their socioeconomic objectives while ensuring climate resilience.

Work contributes to internal strategic opportunities in supporting Member States in meeting their pressing priorities and deal with emerging issues. As an example, the COVID-19 emergency has provided opportunities where knowledge, drawn from work experiences in the region and new knowledge has been used to make a case in formulating an institutional response to member states, of how the Informal sector in Africa can be leveraged as the foundation for rebuilding better, different more resilient economies in the region.
Key publications:
In addition to direct engagement on emerging issues and pressing priorities, over the years, publications drawn from experiences and successes of climate action work in the region also continue to inform policy towards prioritising investments and application of climate action and nature-based solutions for socioeconomic progress. Among leading publications include:

Africa Adaptation Gap reports 1: exploring scientific rigor and policy relevance to provide an overview of the crucial challenges for adaptation to climate change in Africa over the coming decades to century: https://bit.ly/2ONYuol

Africa's Adaptation Gap 2: Exploring options for addressing finance needs at international, regional, and domestic levels : https://bit.ly/313k22r

Keeping Track of Adaptation Actions in Africa report: the report illustrates the future situation of Africa under climate change and the adaptation actions in place: https://bit.ly/3raFjlm

Driving normative to position climate action as a practical source of key socioeconomic solutions for countries
The leading priority of countries across the continent is to actualise their socioeconomic aims - food security, creation of income and jobs for their youth, and macroeconomic expansion. Positioning climate action as a source of these solutions provides a basis for increased investments by countries. Therefore, this catalyses a demand-driven transition to climate resilience and low emission development economies. Our work in the region has been leveraged upon as a basis and source of empirical validation of how climate action can drive adapted solutions. We work with Member States, through providing knowledge and evidence- based information that inform debate and drive adoption - on high level policy decisions of climate action as an investment and source of socioeconomic solutions. This is achieved through the technical support that is provided to Member States through key intergovernmental forums such as the African Ministerial Conference of the Environment (AMCEN) and the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA).

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While Africa has contributed negligibly to the changing climate, with just about two to three percent of global emissions, it stands out disproportionately as the most vulnerable region in the world. This vulnerability is driven by the prevailing low levels of socioeconomic growth in the continent.

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"Asia remained the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023. Floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses, whilst the impact of heatwaves became more severe, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)."

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The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, which will have major repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.

In 2023, sea-surface temperatures in the north-west Pacific Ocean were the highest on record. Even the Arctic Ocean suffered a marine heatwave.

Asia is warming faster than the global average. The warming trend has nearly doubled since the 1961-1990 period.

"The report's conclusions are sobering. Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms. Climate change exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events, profoundly impacting societies, economies, and, most importantly, human lives and the environment that we live in," said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

In 2023, a total of 79 disasters associated with hydro-meteorological hazard events were reported in Asia according to the Emergency Events Database. Of these, over 80% were related to flood and storm events, with more than 2 000 fatalities and nine million people directly affected. Despite the growing health risks posed by extreme heat, heat-related mortality is frequently not reported.

"Yet again, in 2023, vulnerable countries were disproportionately impacted. For example, tropical cyclone Mocha, the strongest cyclone in the Bay of Bengal in the last decade, hit Bangladesh and Myanmar. Early warning and better preparedness saved thousands of lives," said Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), which partnered in producing the report.

"In this context, the State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report is an effort to bridge gaps between climate science and disaster risk through evidence-based policy proposals. ESCAP and WMO, working in partnership, will continue to invest in raising climate ambition and accelerating the implementation of sound policy, including bringing an early warning to all in the region so that no one is left behind as our climate change crisis continues to evolve," she said.

Approximately 80% of WMO Members in the region provide climate services to support disaster risk reduction activities. However, less than 50% of Members provide climate projections and tailored products that are needed to inform risk management and adaptation to and mitigation of climate change and its impacts, according to the report.

The report, one of a series of WMO regional State of the Climate reports, was released during the 80th session of the Commission in Bangkok, Thailand. It is based on input from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, United Nations partners and a network of climate experts. It reflects WMO's commitment to prioritize regional initiatives and inform decision-making.

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Climate change and extreme weather impacts hit Asia hard

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The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, which will have major repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region. In 2023, sea-surface temperatures in the north-west Pacific Ocean were the highest on record.

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Asia is said to be the biggest contributor to the current climate crisis. Therefore, I think researching more into Asia would benefit me in learning how we can fight against climate change.

(I'm not sure why but the website wont link so here is the link:

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/asia-climate-emergency-role-of-fiscal-policy-IMF-dabla#:~:text=But%20while%20Asia%2DPacific%20suffers,greenhouse%2Dgas%2Demitting%20countries.. )

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ERA DABLA-NORRIS, assistant director, IMF Asia and Pacific Department.

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Fiscal policy can help address climate change in Asia, the region hit hardest by global warming.

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Europe is not prepared for rapidly growing climate risks which include warmer, drier and some wetter regions. This impacts their health aswell as the ecosystems that they are dependent on. Europe is especially experiencing intense heatwaves, which take over 85% of their human fatalities.

Europe is the fastest warming continent in the world and climate risks are threatening its energy and food security.

The European Union holds a big impact on the climate Crisis but have recently been taking action in order to limit this.

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Climate change impacts, risks and adaptation

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Climate change is already impacting Europeans’ daily lives and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Europe is expected to get warmer, some regions getting drier, while others wetter. These changes will not only impact our health but also the ecosystems we depend on. The EU is preparing to live with a changing climate through various adaptation measures.

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Europe is below Asia and America when it comes to contributing to the climate crisis. However, I noticed that the European Union is trying to limit the amount that they are participating in. I think this would help me with figuring out the goal that we could use in order to reduce the climate crisis and work towards Climate Action.

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In America, climate change is threatening water resources, increasing the challenges against food and fiber production, and worsening human health through droughts, wildfires, intense precipitation, sea level rise, and marine heatwaves. America is especially being affected through natural disasters.

The United States holds a large impact on the climate Crisis right behind China. They have on an effect on it through burning fossils for electricity, heat and transportation.

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U.S. Agency for International Development

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Climate Change | What We Do | U.S. Agency for International Development

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USAID plays a vital role in mitigating climate change and addressing its impacts by working with partner countries to implement ambitious emissions reduction measures, protect critical ecosystems, transition to renewable energy, build resilience against the impacts of climate change, and promote the flow of capital toward climate-positive investments.

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America is right behind Asia in contributing to the current Climate Crisis. I think this may be right next to China in decided where I want to focus my research on.

I don't know much about how to government is trying to limit the amount of contribution, but I do know a lot of the people in America want change. Therefore I should do more research into it.

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A recent report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has underscored the need for international action to avoid increasingly severe climate impacts in the years to come. Steps outlined in the report, and by climate experts, include major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from sectors such as energy production and transportation.

But how do Americans feel about climate change, and what steps do they think the United States should take to address it? Here are eight charts that illustrate Americans' views on the issue, based on recent Pew Research Center surveys.

Pew Research Center published this collection of survey findings as part of its ongoing work to understand attitudes about climate change and energy issues. The most recent survey was conducted May 30-June 4, 2023, among 10,329 U.S. adults. Earlier findings have been previously published, and methodological information, including the sample sizes and field dates, can be found by following the links in the text.

Everyone who took part in the June 2023 survey is a member of the Center's American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP's methodology.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

A majority of Americans support prioritizing the development of renewable energy sources. Two-thirds of U.S. adults say the country should prioritize developing renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, over expanding the production of oil, coal and natural gas, according to a survey conducted in June 2023.

In a previous Center survey conducted in 2022, nearly the same share of Americans (69%) favored the U.S. taking steps to become carbon neutral by 2050, a goal outlined by President Joe Biden at the outset of his administration. Carbon neutrality means releasing no more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than is removed.

Nine-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the U.S. should prioritize developing alternative energy sources to address America's energy supply. Among Republicans and Republican leaners, 42% support developing alternative energy sources, while 58% say the country should prioritize expanding exploration and production of oil, coal and natural gas.

There are important differences by age within the GOP. Two-thirds of Republicans under age 30 (67%) prioritize the development of alternative energy sources. By contrast, 75% of Republicans ages 65 and older prioritize expanding the production of oil, coal and natural gas.

Americans are reluctant to phase out fossil fuels altogether, but younger adults are more open to it. Overall, about three-in-ten adults (31%) say the U.S. should completely phase out oil, coal and natural gas. More than twice as many (68%) say the country should use a mix of energy sources, including fossil fuels and renewables.

While the public is generally reluctant to phase out fossil fuels altogether, younger adults are more supportive of this idea. Among Americans ages 18 to 29, 48% say the U.S. should exclusively use renewables, compared with 52% who say the U.S. should use a mix of energy sources, including fossil fuels.

There are age differences within both political parties on this question. Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, 58% of those ages 18 to 29 favor phasing out fossil fuels entirely, compared with 42% of Democrats 65 and older. Republicans of all age groups back continuing to use a mix of energy sources, including oil, coal and natural gas. However, about three-in-ten (29%) Republicans ages 18 to 29 say the U.S. should phase out fossil fuels altogether, compared with fewer than one-in-ten Republicans 50 and older.

There are multiple potential routes to carbon neutrality in the U.S. All involve major reductions to carbon emissions in sectors such as energy and transportation by increasing the use of things like wind and solar power and electric vehicles. There are also ways to potentially remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it, such as capturing it directly from the air or using trees and algae to facilitate carbon sequestration.

The public supports the federal government incentivizing wind and solar energy production. In many sectors, including energy and transportation, federal incentives and regulations significantly influence investment and development.

Two-thirds of Americans think the federal government should encourage domestic production of wind and solar power. Just 7% say the government should discourage this, while 26% think it should neither encourage nor discourage it.

Views are more mixed on how the federal government should approach other activities that would reduce carbon emissions. On balance, more Americans think the government should encourage than discourage the use of electric vehicles and nuclear power production, though sizable shares say it should not exert an influence either way.

When it comes to oil and gas drilling, Americans' views are also closely divided: 34% think the government should encourage drilling, while 30% say it should discourage this and 35% say it should do neither. Coal mining is the one activity included in the survey where public sentiment is negative on balance: More say the federal government should discourage than encourage coal mining (39% vs. 21%), while 39% say it should do neither.

Americans see room for multiple actors - including corporations and the federal government - to do more to address the impacts of climate change. Two-thirds of adults say large businesses and corporations are doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change. Far fewer say they are doing about the right amount (21%) or too much (10%).

Majorities also say their state elected officials (58%) and the energy industry (55%) are doing too little to address climate change, according to a March 2023 survey.

In a separate Center survey conducted in June 2023, a similar share of Americans (56%) said the federal government should do more to reduce the effects of global climate change.

When it comes to their own efforts, about half of Americans (51%) think they are doing about the right amount as an individual to help reduce the effects of climate change, according to the March 2023 survey. However, about four-in-ten (43%) say they are doing too little.

Democrats and Republicans have grown further apart over the last decade in their assessments of the threat posed by climate change. Overall, a majority of U.S. adults (54%) describe climate change as a major threat to the country's well-being. This share is down slightly from 2020 but remains higher than in the early 2010s.

Nearly eight-in-ten Democrats (78%) describe climate change as a major threat to the country's well-being, up from about six-in-ten (58%) a decade ago. By contrast, about one-in-four Republicans (23%) consider climate change a major threat, a share that's almost identical to 10 years ago.

Concern over climate change has also risen internationally, as shown by separate Pew Research Center polling across 19 countries in 2022. People in many advanced economies express higher levels of concern than Americans. For instance, 81% of French adults and 73% of Germans describe climate change as a major threat.

Climate change is a lower priority for Americans than other national issues. While a majority of adults view climate change as a major threat, it is a lower priority than issues such as strengthening the economy and reducing health care costs.

Overall, 37% of Americans say addressing climate change should be a top priority for the president and Congress in 2023, and another 34% say it's an important but lower priority. This ranks climate change 17th out of 21 national issues included in a Center survey from January.

As with views of the threat that climate change poses, there's a striking contrast between how Republicans and Democrats prioritize the issue. For Democrats, it falls in the top half of priority issues, and 59% call it a top priority. By comparison, among Republicans, it ranks second to last, and just 13% describe it as a top priority.

Our analyses have found that partisan gaps on climate change are often widest on questions - such as this one - that measure the salience or importance of the issue. The gaps are more modest when it comes to some specific climate policies. For example, majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike say they would favor a proposal to provide a tax credit to businesses for developing technologies for carbon capture and storage.

Perceptions of local climate impacts vary by Americans' political affiliation and whether they believe that climate change is a serious problem. A majority of Americans (61%) say that global climate change is affecting their local community either a great deal or some. About four-in-ten (39%) see little or no impact in their own community.

The perception that the effects of climate change are happening close to home is one factor that could drive public concern and calls for action on the issue. But perceptions are tied more strongly to people's beliefs about climate change - and their partisan affiliation - than to local conditions.

For example, Americans living in the Pacific region - California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska - are more likely than those in other areas of the country to say that climate change is having a great deal of impact locally. But only Democrats in the Pacific region are more likely to say they are seeing effects of climate change where they live. Republicans in this region are no more likely than Republicans in other areas to say that climate change is affecting their local community.

Our previous surveys show that nearly all Democrats believe climate change is at least a somewhat serious problem, and a large majority believe that humans play a role in it. Republicans are much less likely to hold these beliefs, but views within the GOP do vary significantly by age and ideology. Younger Republicans and those who describe their views as moderate or liberal are much more likely than older and more conservative Republicans to describe climate change as at least a somewhat serious problem and to say human activity plays a role.

Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to report experiencing extreme weather events in their area over the past year - such as intense storms and floods, long periods of hot weather or droughts - and to see these events as connected with climate change.

About three-quarters of Americans support U.S. participation in international efforts to reduce the effects of climate change. Americans offer broad support for international engagement on climate change: 74% say they support U.S. participation in international efforts to reduce the effects of climate change.

Still, there's little consensus on how current U.S. efforts stack up against those of other large economies. About one-in-three Americans (36%) think the U.S. is doing more than other large economies to reduce the effects of global climate change, while 30% say the U.S. is doing less than other large economies and 32% think it is doing about as much as others. The U.S. is the second-largest carbon dioxide emitter, contributing about 13.5% of the global total.

When asked what they think the right balance of responsibility is, a majority of Americans (56%) say the U.S. should do about as much as other large economies to reduce the effects of climate change, while 27% think it should do more than others.

A previous Center survey found that while Americans favor international cooperation on climate change in general terms, their support has its limits. In January 2022, 59% of Americans said that the U.S. does not have a responsibility to provide financial assistance to developing countries to help them build renewable energy sources.

In recent years, the UN conference on climate change has grappled with how wealthier nations should assist developing countries in dealing with climate change. The most recent convening in fall 2022, known as COP27, established a "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable countries impacted by climate change.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published April 22, 2022. Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

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What the data says about Americans' views of climate change

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Two-thirds of Americans say the United States should prioritize developing renewable energy sources over expanding the production of fossil fuels.

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This website talks about how depended America is and how vulnerable it is within energy transitions.

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Which US counties are most vulnerable in the energy transition? | MIT Sloan

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A new metric — ‘employment carbon footprint’ — can better help determine the U.S. counties most vulnerable to economic disruption from decarbonization.

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I know that anyone can be a contributer to bringing an end to the Climate Crisis. This involves the way that we travel, eat, reduce and reuse and so much more.

However, I am not aware on how big leaders are attempting to make a difference. Therefore I decided to do more research on what bigger countries are doing along with what they should be doing.

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One key element of this plan is shifting to renewable energy sources, both at home and at work. “We have the necessary technology to make this reduction by shifting to renewable energy and using less energy,”

Individual Action: Switching to more energy-efficient power sources for homes where possible

Bigger Action: The industrial sector needs to make and follow through on its commitments to clean and renewable energy transitions

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10 Solutions to climate change that will actually make a difference

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At this point we need action that’s bigger than any one person. But that’s not the whole story. Here are 10 solutions to climate change.

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Producing food is a contributor for some measure of greenhouse gasses. According to the website, our increase in meat consumption will increase greenhouse gas emissions from food production by 60% by 2050.

Individual Action: Buying more sustainable groceries, eating all the food that is purchased, and composting what isn't able to be used.

Bigger Action: Agricultural producers need to switch to fertilizers that contribute fewer greenhouse gas emissions an use other sustainable farming practices.

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Today, an estimated one-third of all the food produced in the world goes to waste. That's equal to about 1.3 billion tons of fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, seafood, and grains that either never leave the farm, get lost or spoiled during distribution, or are thrown away in hotels, grocery stores, restaurants, schools, or home kitchens. It could be enough calories to feed every undernourished person on the planet.

But wasted food isn't just a social or humanitarian concern-it's an environmental one. When we waste food, we also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport, and package it. And if food goes to the landfill and rots, it produces methane-a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide. About 6%-8% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced if we stop wasting food. In the US alone, the production of lost or wasted food generates the equivalent of 32.6 million cars' worth of greenhouse gas emissions.

As the world's population continues to grow, our challenge should not be how to grow more food, but to feed more people while wasting less of what we already produce. Thankfully, there are plenty of actions we can take at the consumer level to make a significant difference. From delivering leftovers to those in need to freezing food, shopping smarter, and composting to keep inedible scraps out of landfills, we can all take small steps to curb our emissions.

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Fight climate change by preventing food waste

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Today, an estimated one-third of all the food produced in the world goes to waste. That's equal to about 1.3 billion tons of fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, seafood, and grains that either never leave the farm, get lost or spoiled during distribution, or are thrown away in hotels, grocery stores, restaurants, schools, or home kitchens.

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I actually really like this website because it has loads of different based solutions. The solutions included in this website are small changes as well as big changes.

I specifically like the conservation and forestry topics that are mentioned in this website.

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What Are the Solutions to Climate Change?

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Some solutions are big and will require billions in investment. Some are small and free. All are achievable.…

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There are so many things we can do to limit the amount of contributions we give to the climate crisis.

I am looking forward to do further research into the simple things we can change in our everyday lives to limit global warming

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Note that the info from wmo.int are different articles from the same source!

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I really wanted to do the U.S.A but then realized I wasn't allowed to, so now I am switching over to Asia since it is one of the top contributors to the climate crisis. I am specifically going to focus on China.

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How are China's ecosystems and wildlife being affected by the rising temperatures and climate change that China is contributing to.

Why I should use this question:

I really enjoy learning about animals and I have a great passion for it, which may make my research on it more interesting.

Why I should not use this question:

I didn't really research anything on it, and my interest in the wildlife and ecosystem are at the same level as my interest in the natural disasters (which I have more research on).

(I also struggled to find good websites )

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WCS China > Initiatives > Climate Change

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China’s vast and complex landscapes are undergoing an equally vast and complex transformation. Its wildernesses span tropical and mountain forests, grasslands, meadows, deserts, high-altitude lakes, and coastal marshes.

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How much effect has the government policies and regulations been in addressing global warming in China

Why I should use this question:

I actually don't know much on the government's effectiveness in addressing global warming, so I thought this could be a very interesting and good topic for me to learn about.

Why I shouldn't use this question:

I might not know how to research this topic. In addition, I think I would start to get bored with this question which would be bad for my research.

I also struggled on finding websites on what has BEEN done, and when I did I couldn't hold as much interest in it as my other topics

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Hongqiao Liu, Simon Evans, Zizhu Zhang, Wanyuan Song, Xiaoying You, Joe Goodman, Tom Prater

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China has the worlds’s largest greenhouse gas emissions.

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I had planned on adding more than three research questions, but I found myself not knowing which of these three I wanted to use for my official main question. Therefore I am only using these three. Right now I will go back and add reasoning under the research question stating why I should use that question and why I shouldn't.

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I think I will focus on just research question one, just because I have more information about it already. However I think I could somehow contribute to other countries natural disasters and implement them in my research somehow.