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While global warming has caused the tides to rise, it is also threatening the water supplies of 3.2 billion people around the world, according to a new UN report.
Glacier runoff provides drinking water for tens of millions of people, but a record loss of glacial mass is causing further water scarcity.
Glacier runoff is expected to peak globally by the end of the century and then decline.
According to the report, the number of people living in places with insufficient water will skyrocket by almost 60 percent in the next 30 years.
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According to a new UN report, due to climate change, the number of people living in places with insufficient water will rise from 1.9 billion to 3.2 billion by 2050.
The fact that the last decade has been the warmest on record has ‘a clear fingerprint’ of climate change, said the World Meteorological Organization, which just released United in Science 2020, a multi-department assessment of the latest scientific data from the weather.
In admitting that 2020 was an “unprecedented” year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said climate disruption continued unabated, with “record heat, ice loss, forest fires, floods and droughts.”
“Never before has it been so clear that we need clean, inclusive and long-term transitions to address the climate crisis and achieve sustainable development,” he said.
“We must turn the recovery from the pandemic into a real opportunity to build a better future.”
Glacier runoff, which provides water to hundreds of millions of people, is expected to peak globally by the end of the century. Some glaciers have reported losing 14 inches of mass a year since 2012
The United in Science report noted that climate change “is often felt through water-related hazards, such as droughts or floods.”
Warmer temperatures have caused reductions in the world’s glaciers and ice sheets, threatening freshwater supplies.
More glacier mass was lost between 2016 and 2019 than in any other five-year period since 1950.
In the Himalayas alone, discovered glaciers have been losing 14 inches in mass every year since 2012, reports Greater Kashmir.
Glacier runoff, which provides drinking water, is expected to peak globally by the end of the century and then decline.
Some areas, such as Central Europe and the Caucasus region, are already at the tipping point.
In the last decade, 1.9 billion people lived in places with insufficient water.
According to the report, that number will skyrocket to 3.2 billion by 2050.
Water scarcity is becoming an increasingly important metric in determining a country’s credit quality or sovereign rating, according to analysts.
That puts more pressure on countries to tackle climate change.
“ While climate change disruptions are likely to manifest only gradually over the next several decades, water risks already materialize regularly and on a large scale, ” said Mahmoud Harb and Kathleen Chen, analysts at Fitch Ratings.
“The relevance of water risks to the sovereign rating will increase.”
According to the World Bank, the gross domestic product of some countries could fall by as much as 6 percent over the next 30 years as a result of water problems.
Middle Eastern nations like Kuwait and Egypt are the most exposed to water stress and the risk of drought, Bloomberg reports.
On the other side of the scale, climate change is also causing flooding.
According to data from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the sea level will rise more than one meter in the next eight decades.
Today, some 1.2 billion people are at risk of flooding, a population that will rise to 1.6 billion by 2050.
According to the report, Bangladesh, Rwanda and Vietnam face the highest risk of flooding.
