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• Impacts on the Pacific and other Small Island States

• Impacts on Sovereignty and Development Rights

• Increases in Refugees

• Climate Change Impacts in Asia

• Climate Change Impacts in Africa

• Climate Change Impacts in Latin America

• Delivering “Climate Sensitive” Aid

• Impacts on Millennium Development Goals

While we are already committed to a warmer climate, it is not too late to avoid a dangerously hot and unstable new world. There is still a window of opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and realise the promise of a prosperous, fair and sustainable 21st century.

The evidence of warming is clear. Since the industrial era began, wealthy nations have released huge amounts of carbon into the earth's atmosphere and altered the surface of the planet. As greenhouse gas concentrations have risen, so too have global temperatures. The past decade was the hottest of the past 150 years, and possibly of the past millennium. The hottest 22 years on record have occurred in the 25 years since 1980. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts a global temperature increase of 1.4ºC to 5.8ºC above 1990 temperatures by 2100.

Climate change will affect everyone. In a hotter and more volatile world, both rich and poor stand to lose. Those already affected by poverty, malnutrition and disease will face displacement and new hardships. In the developed world, our industries, livelihoods and public health will face serious threats from drought, disease and extreme weather events.

Climate change is an issue of justice. The impacts of greenhouse gas emissions will disproportionately affect those societies who have contributed the least to the problem. Low-lying Pacific states, collectively responsible for fewer than 0.6% of the world's emissions, face dispossession. Yet the worst offenders, including Australia and the United States, continue to pollute at historically high levels. Justice demands that wealthy polluters should end their reliance on fossil fuels, and embrace a future based on a fair share of resource use for all.

Stopping Climate change is up to us. Our actions today will determine the climate of tomorrow. By choosing to take action now we limit the future damage. The alternative is an environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe of our own making.

This website summarises some of the literature on the social impacts of climate change in order to allow those concerned with justice and development to address climate change in the context of their work. An objective of this project is the identification of key social issues arising from climate change. Each area of impact was assessed against the following criteria:

• significance of the impact of climate change,
• vulnerability of the community affected and their ability to adapt to these impacts,
• ease with which the issue could be communicated to a broader audience, and
• likelihood to inspire action from a broad range of the Australian public.

The Justice and International Mission Unit