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Turn Down the <strong>Heat</strong>: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must Be Avoided<br />
Concluding Remarks<br />
A 4°C world will pose unprecedented challenges to humanity. It<br />
is clear that large regional as well as global scale damages and<br />
risks are very likely to occur well before this level of warming is<br />
reached. This report has attempted to identify the scope of these<br />
challenges driven by responses of the Earth system and various<br />
human and natural systems. Although no quantification of the full<br />
scale of human damage is yet possible, the picture that emerges<br />
challenges an often-implicit assumption that climate change will<br />
not significantly undermine economic growth. 15 It seems clear that<br />
climate change in a 4°C world could seriously undermine poverty<br />
alleviation in many regions. This is supported by past observations<br />
of the negative effects of climate change on economic growth<br />
in developing countries. While developed countries have been<br />
and are projected to be adversely affected by impacts resulting<br />
from climate change, adaptive capacities in developing regions<br />
are weaker. The burden of climate change in the future will very<br />
likely be borne differentially by those in regions already highly<br />
vulnerable to climate change and variability. Given that it remains<br />
uncertain whether adaptation and further progress toward development<br />
goals will be possible at this level of climate change, the<br />
projected 4°C warming simply must not be allowed to occur—the<br />
heat must be turned down. Only early, cooperative, international<br />
actions can make that happen.<br />
15 The Stern Report being a notable exception, Stern, N. 2007. The Economics of Climate<br />
Change: The Stern Review. Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press.<br />
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