A recent report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasizes the importance of 'near-term mitigation and adaptation actions' to avoid the worst consequences of a warming world.
The IPCC report identified 127 main climate-related threats, which were analyzed in the mid- and long-term beyond 2040. It added, however, that the magnitude and rate of climate change and its associated risks depend heavily on near-term mitigation and adaptation.
'Adaptation plays a key role in reducing exposure and vulnerability to climate change,' the report says. 'In human systems, adaptation can be anticipatory or reactive, as well as incremental and/or transformational.'
The report found that between 3.3 and 3.6 billion people currently live in settings that are extremely vulnerable to climate risk. As U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres put it, 'Nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone â€" now.'
