Climate change could mean extreme disasters, especially high temperatures occuring more offen in the future, according to a special report on extreme weather events from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
"A hottest day that occurs once in 20 years is likely to become a one-in-two year event, except in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, where it is likely to be one-in-five years," according to Sonia Seneviratne, a climate expert at ETH Zurich, which is part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Since the 1950s, record-breaking daily temperatures and heatwaves have become more frequent or lasted longer, according to strong evidence. There is a 90-100 percent probability that this will continue through the 21st century, according to the report.
Therefore, the group said, economic losses from weather-and climate-related disasters vary from year to year and place to place, but overall have increased (high confidence).
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri urged countries to prepare more for climate-related disasters.
Many defence options are of the "no regret" type, meaning they are relatively low-cost but effective, he said.
"The main message from the report is that we know enough to make good decisions about managing the risks of climate-related disasters. Sometimes we take advantage of this knowledge, but many times we do not," said Chris Field, Co-Chair of IPCC's Working Group.
"The challenge for the future has one dimension focused on improving the knowledge base and one on empowering good decisions, even for those situations where there is lots of uncertainty," he said.
The report marks the first time that the scientific literature on extreme events has been synthesised by a single team. It offers a greater understanding of the human and economic costs of disasters and the physical and social patterns that cause them.
It enables policy-makers to delve into the detailed information behind the findings to examine the material on which the IPCC based its assessments.
Source:english.sepa.gov