Managing the Risks of Extreme Weather: IPCC Special Report

The number of hot days and nights very likely has increased globally in recent years, according to a special report 1 focused solely on extreme weather events from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2 while the number of cold days has decreased. The future looks similar, the IPCC panel says: If countries continue to increase emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2)—the greenhouse gas produced by human activities in the greatest quantities— deadly heat waves and heavy precipitation events will occur more often. Devastating tropical cyclones, on the other hand, are likely to remain the same or even decrease. A summary report for policy makers was released 18 November 2011 in advance of the February 2012 publication of the full IPCC Special Report Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX). Several aspects of SREX are designed to inform governments and other decision makers struggling to develop climate-change adaptation plans. The report offers adaptation measures that planners can implement to protect human health during extreme weather events. These include " low-regrets " activities that provide benefits now and under a variety of future scenarios, such as installing systems that warn people of impending disasters and improving systems for health surveillance, drinking water, and drainage. This publication represents the first time that IPCC working groups I (which focuses on the physical science basis of climate change) and II (which focuses on impacts, adaptation , and vulnerability) have collaborated on a report, says SREX coordinating lead author Sonia I. Seneviratne, an assistant professor at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich. It also includes several lead authors from the disaster risk management community. " I think the report allows a better integration of information all the way from the physical projections of climate extremes to disaster management and climate adaptation options. This should make it particularly valuable for decision makers, " Seneviratne says. The analysis concludes that extreme weather events will particularly affect sectors closely tied to climate: water, agriculture, food security, forestry, health, and tourism. The severity of human health impacts from climate extremes will reflect how prepared or how vulnerable a community is. For example, people living in areas with rapid and unplanned urbanization, environmental degradation, and poverty are more vulnerable to the hazards of extreme climate events than those living in better-planned, better-protected, and higher-income communities. After a disaster, the …