Climate Change and its Humanitarian Impacts

The globe’s climate is varying and changing unequivocally. Nothing we do today will
curb many significant transformations heralded by 2050. There is no uncertainty about
this or the fact that there will be human consequences. Communities must be prepared
to face the challenges of these consequences. Humanitarian and international
development leaders must be equipped to assist the most vulnerable communities.
Climate science generators must be aware of the crucial role they play in helping
humanitarian decision makers process the most urgent information. In this report, we
refer to climate science as any field that produces primary data reflecting dimensions of the
physical climate, and the humanitarian community as actors whose mandate it is to save lives from physical events or processes (commonly referred to as disasters) as well as from
complex (political) crises.

This report aims to synthesize the wealth of climate information specifically linked
to consequences across the globe that require the attention of the humanitarian
community. To do so, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) employs two main
methods. First, an electronic survey was organized to capture the main differences in
understanding and requirements between two sectors: those generating climate information and those using it to humanitarian ends. Secondly, over 200 peer-reviewed documents and gray literature were carefully canvassed and their findings mapped in a manner that may be useful to humanitarian actors, while highlighting ways the climate communities may put science to the service of society.