Climate Change & Human Development

Climate change is the greatest health threat of the 21st century with deep implications for human development, human rights, peace, and security (UNICEF, 2021; Watts et al., 2015). In 2021, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that “the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk” (IPCC, 2021; UN, 2021).

The changes to the climate already underway are staggering. Temperatures have increased by at least 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, perilously close to the threshold of 1.5 degrees that scientists regard as a likely tipping point beyond which it will not be possible to halt further climate disruption (Steffen et al., 2018). Carbon dioxide levels, the main contributor to the greenhouse effect, continue to rise, reaching 421 parts per million in 2022, the highest for at least 6 million years (NOAA, 2022). Extreme temperatures, wildfires, hurricanes, and floods are more frequent and intense across the globe, and rising sea levels, droughts, and food and water shortages have created millions of  “climate refugees.” In addition, climate change has and will continue to disrupt geopolitical stability; the UN Security Council describes climate change as a “threat accelerant” for conflicts both within and between nation states (United Nations News, 2019).  Climate change is also endangering planetary health by destroying the habitats of many life forms and reducing biodiversity, which has significant implications for human well-being.

Climate science indicates that we must move very rapidly beyond fossil fuels, eliminate human-made emissions of greenhouse gasses, and draw down the excess already in the atmosphere to avoid reaching a point beyond which we cannot recover. While technologies exist to achieve many of these goals, nations are not yet acting with the urgency and at the scale that is required. It is also important to understand that the changes needed to address the climate crisis are not solely technological. Since climate change is caused by human behavior, greater knowledge and cooperation among people across the globe, including widespread social and behavioral change, are essential (IPCC, 2022).

Thus, the connection between the climate crisis and human development is twofold:

  1. This crisis threatens human development at all points across the lifespan.

  2. Individuals at all points in development can and must be involved as agents of change in addressing this existential threat.