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are of paramount importance as water towers for people living there and for around two billion people living in connected lowland areas.

Mountain river systems are especially sensitive to and affected by and continuing human activity disturbance, including water pollution, hydropower development, water withdrawals for agriculture and human consumption and loss and
ecosystem changes.

Present and potential future hotspot regions of
water scarcity that rely heavily on mountainous water sources include Central Asia, South Asia, tropical and subtropical western South
America and southwestern North America.

At a global scale, 68% of irrigated
areas in lowlands depend on essential runoff contributions from the mountains. The dependence of lowland populations on essential
mountain runoff contributions increased by a factor of more than three from the 1960s to the 2000s, with increases of up to ten-fold in some major river catchments.

Source: IPCC

Small islands are increasingly affected by increases in temperature,
the growing impacts of tropical cyclones (TC), storm surges, droughts, changing precipitation patterns, sea level rise, coral bleaching and invasive species, all of which are already detectable across both natural and human systems.

Despite encompassing approximately 2% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, oceanic and other high-endemicity islands are estimated to harbour substantial proportions of existing species including ~ 25% extant global flora, ~ 12% birds and ~10% mammals.

Intense TCs including Categories 4 and 5 TCs have threatened human life and destroyed buildings and infrastructural assets in small islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Among 29 Caribbean islands, 22 were affected by at least one Category 4 or 5 TC in 2017. TC Maria in 2017 destroyed nearly all of Dominica’s infrastructure and losses amounted to over 225% of the annual GDP. Destruction from TC Winston in 2016 exceeded 20% of Fiji’s current GDP. TC Pam devastated Vanuatu in 2015 and caused losses and damages to the agricultural sector valued at USD 56.5 million (64.1% of GDP)

Source: IPCC
Image: Mauritius Island, Indian Ocean

All biodiversity hotspots are already impacted to differing degrees by human activities.

At present, there are over 3 billion people living within terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity hotspots, many of which border marine hotspots.

Endemic species (species only found in one place in the world) are 2.7 times more at risk than widespread species.

Endemic species are 100%, 84% & 54% at risk of extinction in islands, mountains and oceans respectively.

Source: IPCC

Climate change poses significant threat to African marine & freshwater fisheries.

Fisheries provide the main source of protein for approximately 200 million young people in Africa & support the livelihoods of 12.3 million people.

At 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming, marine fish catch potential decreases 3-41% relative to 1986-2005 levels with highest decreases in tropical countries.

Under 1.7 degrees Celsius global warming, reduced fish harvests could leave 1.2-70 million people in Africa vulnerable to iron deficiencies, up to 188 million for vitamin A deficiencies, and 285 million for vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids by 2050.

For inland fisheries, 55-68% of commercially harvested fish species are vulnerable to extinction under 2.5 degrees global warming by 2071-2100

Source: IPCC

Africans are disproportionately employed in climate-exposed sectors: 55-62% of the sub-Saharan workforce is employed in agriculture and 95% of cropland is rainfed.

In rural Africa, poor and female-headed households face greater livelihood risks from climate hazards.

In urban areas, growing informal settlements without basic services increase the vulnerability of large populations to climate hazards, especially women, children and the elderly.

Source: IPCC

Photo credit: Annie Spratt, 2017 in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Ayambe Zero Just like one knows their name, every business/organization needs to know, track and manage their carbon footprint. Let us show you how.

Do you know the 4 major green house gases?

If any of those gases were produced today, carbon dioxide (CO2) could stay in the atmosphere for the next 20 - 1000 years.

Methane (CH4) could last for 12 years while nitrous oxide(N20) would potentially remain for the next 120 years.

In other words, some of the CO2 produced in 1775 when James Watt created the first reliable steam engine could potentially still be in our atmosphere today.

Source: EPA, IPCC

Did you know that since 1750 (beginning of the industrial revolution) the world has emitted about 1.5 trillion tons of carbon emissions?

Last year's emissions of 40.8 billion tons are equivalent to roughly 2.7% of the entire emissions since 1750.

The US is responsible for about 25% or a quarter of all emissions since 1750 followed by the EU at 22% and China at 13%.

However in recent years, China is the world's top annual emitter responsible for about 27% of all global carbon dioxide emissions and 15% of global methane emissions in 2019 alone.

Source: Our world in data, McKinsey

The past 7 years have been the hottest in recorded history with 25 countries setting annual records in 2021 and 12 countries (1.8 billion people) experiencing their warmest years ever.

While in 2021, the global temperatures were between 1.1 - 1.2 degrees Celsius beyond the pre-industrial period, our current policies will result in warming of 2.5 - 2.9 degrees Celsius by 2100.

Even with our current pledges and targets, they will result in warming of 2.1 degrees Celsius by 2100.

With no climate policies at all, earth will warm by 4.1 - 4.8 degrees Celsius by 2100.

This is why we need to do more than we have currently pledged to maintain a pathway that SHOULD NOT warm earth by 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.

Sources: Washington Post, Our World in Data

Overall, greenhouse gas emissions reached 40.8 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (all greenhouse gases standardized as one) in 2021.

To put that into perspective, about 29.2 trillion trees planted on 40 billion acres of land would be required to completely absorb just last year's emissions.

However, the reality is that earth has about 3 trillion trees with only 36.8 billion acres of inhabitable land.

This means that we require about 10 times the total number of trees currently available in the world to completely absorb last year's emissions.

The graph below shows CO2 emissions from energy combustion and industrial processes from 1900 - 2021.

We need to act to now.



Sources: IEA, IEE