Climate action is key to preventing poverty

A historic report last week set out how we can avoid pushing millions of people into poverty, but only if governments and individuals take immediate action to tackle climate change.

The report – published by a group of scientists from around the world called the ‘Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’ (IPCC) – says that global temperature rises must be kept below 1.5 Celsius.

If we reduce our carbon emissions, we can do this and avoid the most severe impacts of climate change. These include even worse flooding and storms in some areas of the world, and threats to food and water supplies due to famines and droughts in other regions.

Our partners all over the world are telling us that the effects of the changing climate are being felt the most by the world’s poorest people, whose food and water supplies are being stretched too breaking by increasing flooding and drought.

The IPCC report sets out a number of steps that must be taken urgently to avoid temperature rises exceeding 1.5 Celsius, including, cutting carbon emissions, switching to renewable energy and living simply and caring for our common home.