"At COP27 Scientists Warn against Limits of Adaptation", 10 November 2022

leading global experts from the natural and social sciences today presented ten essential insights on climate change since 2021. A key focus was on the limits of humankind to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change, which include ever more frequent and severe drought, storms and floods.

The 10 New Insights in Climate Science presents key insights from the latest climate change-related research this year and responds to clear calls for policy guidance during this critical decade...

In the scientific synthesis report, scientists from around the world emphasize and unpack the complex interactions between climate change and other drivers of risk, such as conflicts, pandemics, food crises and underlying development challenges. The scientists find that the potential to adapt to climate change is not limitless.

Rising sea levels capable of submerging coastal communities and extreme heat intolerable to the human body, are examples of ‘hard’ limits to our ability to adapt. They also highlight that over 3 billion people will inhabit ‘vulnerability hotspots’ - areas with the highest susceptibility to being adversely affected by climate-driven hazards - by 2050, double what it is today...

The scientists further outline that persistent dependence on fossil fuels exacerbates major vulnerabilities, notably for energy and food security, and that deep and swift mitigation to tackle the drivers of climate change is immediately necessary to avert and minimize future loss and damage...