Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

The Summary for Policymakers (SPM) was released to the media in Brussels on April 6, 2007.

Providing an assessment of the already-observed changes due to climate change and future impacts, this report focuses on the need for adaptation. Significant changes in our physical environment are already evident and future changes will likely lead to a heavy toll on vulnerable populations of the world.

John Drexhage, director of climate change and energy for the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and an expert reviewer of the IPCC Working Group II report, states: "This IPCC report confirms a message we have been stating loud and clear for a few years now: namely that those least responsible for global warming — the poor, the indigenous communities — are the ones to be the most immediately and severely impacted by it. This is a core equity issue that must be addressed in the international negotiations."

David Runnalls, CEO and president of IISD, agrees. "In order for development to be sustainable, we are now going to have to factor in increasing and targeted levels of overseas assistance that will help developing countries cope with the problems we in the developed world have created."

"The fact that we are already experiencing the impacts of climate change should not mean that we throw up our hands in the air — far from it. Instead it should galvanize us into actions that will once and for all treat this problem with the level of seriousness it needs to be treated." For more information on the Working Group II report, its findings and implications please contact npelletier@iisd.ca.