IPCC Report 2022

Once again and even more insisting, the report emphasises the vulnerability of urban areas to the impacts of climate change. As a major game changer, heatwaves will be a climate change consequence with an increase in occurrence probability and intensity of several hundred times compared to today.

And even today, some urban areas around the world are already on the edge to become uninhabitable especially for older and vulnerable parts of the population. Speaking of social impacts and humans vulnerability to climate change: For the first time, the IPCC report extends its projections beyond the pure physical phenomena and raises concerns about the impact of changed climate onto our social systems including human wellbeing, health and also territorial conflicts due to climate change induced migration.

But urban areas are also part of the solution to mitigate climate change, the IPCC report states. The technologies are largely there to provide sustainable growth and friendly living conditions at the same time. But it is up to us to pick up these tools as the many of the driving forces already cannot be made undone but it is in our hands to prevent things from getting even worse.

If the latest history has shown one thing very clearly, it is that doing business as usual will lead to a point when there is no “usual” anymore.

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!