Gardoni Paolo - Climate change and its impacts: risks and inequalities

Climate change is one of the most important and pressing contemporary global challenges for the international community. Climate change is modifying the likelihood and magnitude of natural hazards around the world and creating new vulnerabilities (Gardoni et al. ). These hazards include heat waves and their effects on wildfires and droughts; severe precipitation and its effects on floods and large snowfall events; and hurricanes. Climate change is also causing sea level rise that affects coastal communities where large and vulnerable populations often reside. It is estimated that $70$100 billion will be needed by developing countries to adapt to the anticipated impacts of climate change. There is a clear need for a deeper understanding of the consequences of climate change, of the attendant natural hazards, and of their social impact.

The basic premise of this book is that an appropriate and comprehensive response to climate change requires the technical expertise of engineers and scientists; the legal, cultural, political, environmental and economic expertise of social scientists and legal scholars; and the moral expertise of ethicists, including philosophers. In keeping with this premise, the book brings climate scientists, engineers, and urban planners into conversation with legal scholars, geographers, anthropologists and ethicists. The chapters provide a broad overview of how climate change is conceptualized by academics in all of these fields.

The book is organized into five parts. Part I consists in this introduction. Part II begins with an up to date account of what science is telling us about climate change and its consequences. Then the focus shifts to the moral implications of climate change in general and of the Paris Agreement in particular. The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016, and to date 167 countries have ratified it. It requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. This includes requirements that all Parties report regularly on their emissions and on their implementation efforts (United Nations ). Part III turns to a specific set of risks that are and will continue to be affected by climate change: risks from natural hazards. Part IV begins our discussion of responses to climate change, probing the issues of mitigation and adaptation. Also included here are analyses of how, where, and by whom mitigation as well as adaptation efforts should be made and prescriptions for ways to approach climate adaptation and mitigation. In Part V additional responses are considered. These include new perspectives on how to understand the problem and possible partial solutions to the problem, as well as some reflection about what motivates people to respond appropriately.