Ahead Of Rome G20 Summit, New Study Lists How Climate Change Will Severely Impact Every Member Nation

Researchers at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) found that climate change is already impacting all members of the G20.

G20 Summit | Photo credit: Getty

New Delhi: Climate change will have devastating impacts on every Group of 20 (G20) member, says a report launched before the G20 Summit to be held in Rome on October 30 and 31. 

Scientists studied how global warming will affect food supplies, water availability, human health, and other vital indicators, for every G20 member country. 

The 2021 G20 Rome summit is the sixteenth meeting of the grouping.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be attending the summit and has reached Rome.

The Group of Twenty, or G20, is an international forum that brings together the world’s major economies. 

The members of the G20 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.

G20 members together account for 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

How Climate Change Will Impact G20 Countries:

The study was conducted by a team of more than 40 scientists at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), a research center that serves as the Italian focal point for The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

The researchers found that climate change is already impacting the G20.

There has been at least a 15 percent increase in heat-related deaths in all G20 countries, over the last two decades, the study found.

Forest fires have in the G20 have burnt an area one and half times the size of Canada. 

The scientists noted that the condition will worsen if there is no cut in emissions.

They said climate change is likely to impact every aspect of life in the G20 countries. It will cause the sea levels to rise, plummet freshwater availability, spread dengue and other diseases, and result in a huge increase in heat-related deaths. 

If emissions are high in Brazil, heatwaves will last seventy-six times longer by 2036-2065. However, if emissions are low, heatwaves will last for a shorter period of time. 

Climate change can cause a fish catch in France to fall to 33 to 45 percent by 2050. 

The percentage of people in the USA who will be at high risk of contracting dengue fever, the Zika virus, and Malaria, when emissions are medium to high, is 90, 80, and 30 percent, respectively.

There could be more than a 10 percent loss in GDP, due to worsening climate impacts, for the countries — Saudi Arabia, the USA, India, Japan, and South Korea.
GDP losses to the tune of more than 13 percent are expected in Canada, Indonesia, and South Africa.

The study noted that emission cuts could reduce climate impacts on every aspect of life. For instance, low emissions would reduce the loss of potential fish catch in India by half, compared with high emissions. 

Economic damage from sea level in the USA would be reduced by more than half when the emissions are lowered.

Climate Change Impacts On India

If emissions are high, and the global temperature rise is as high as 4 degrees Celsius, heat waves in India will last 25 times longer by 2036-2065.

If the global temperature rise is limited to 2 degrees Celsius, heatwaves will last five times longer, in the country.

If emissions are very low, and the temperature rise is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, heatwaves will last one and a half times longer. 

A warming climate is likely to reduce sugarcane, rice, wheat, and maize yields in India. Climate change could result in disease outbreaks and cause extreme events such as floods or storms.

Water demand for agriculture is likely to rise by around 29 percent by 2050.

For a global temperature rise of 4 degrees Celsius, agricultural drought will become 48 percent more frequent by 2036 to 2065.

 When the annual temperature rise is 2 degrees Celsius, which is the maximum temperature agreed by the Paris Agreement, agricultural drought will drop to being 20 percent more frequent.

If the annual global temperature rise is 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is the aspirational goal of the Paris Agreement, agricultural drought will be 13 percent more frequent.

If emissions are low, the potential fish catch could fall to 8.8 percent by 2050.

Today, 1.3 million Indians are the risk of river flooding. The number could increase to 18 million if emissions are high.

Medium emissions could cause total labour to decline by 24 percent by 2080, and low emissions could cause total labour to decrease by 13.4 percent within the same time period, the study assessed.