Climate Change: Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation

Abstract

According to a survey conducted for UNEP’s Global Environmental Outlook, environmental experts and research scientists perceive climate change as a dominant environmental issue for the current generation (UNEP, 1999). The survey, conducted among 200 environmental experts from over 50 countries, including several research scientists, found that 51% of the respondents considered climate change as the major environmental problem facing us today. 29% of those surveyed felt that fresh water scarcity was the major problem. Among other problems identified were: deforestation or desertification (28%), fresh water pollution (28%), loss of biodiversity (23%), population growth (22%), and waste disposal (20%). Recognizing the major threat presented by climate change, the parties to the UNFCCC agreed to take action to avoid dangerous levels of climate change by ensuring that food production is not threatened, and economic development is promoted in a sustainable manner.