Sustainable development and well-being in a warmer world

Societies, economies, and policies are already facing the adverse effects of climate change in all regions of the world, including increasingly intense and more frequent extreme events, the occurrence of droughts, changes affecting ecosystems, and rising sea levels.

With increasing global warming there is a greater urgency for sustained emissions reductions, adaptation, and building resilience whilst enabling sustainable development, particularly in the Global South and most vulnerable communities.

This means informing society’s ability to make choices that ensure growth and well-being.

Policymakers need the knowledge and tools required to assess the implications of climatic trends, as well as the potential for low probability, high impact outcomes, for a thriving and sustainable future.

Such actions may require transformative changes and we need to understand how this can play out given our established societal infrastructure and operations that were historically based on stable climate conditions.

We need to characterize the socio-economic impacts of climate change to inform sustainable development, adapt and build resilience in the context of sustained efforts to reduce emissions and limit global warming. This requires advanced knowledge of the interactions between climate change and crucial sectors of economies as well as ecosystems, with attention to equity, justice, and the distributional aspects of impacts and actions.