Protecting people from changing climate: Case for resilience

The World Economic Forum's assessment indicates that by 2050, a significant portion of the global population will be exposed to severe climate hazards, including heat stress, urban water stress, agricultural drought, and flooding. The report highlights that exposure is unevenly distributed, with lower-income countries and vulnerable groups facing the highest risks. It emphasizes that while decarbonization is critical, resilience-building through innovation and public-private partnerships is necessary to protect billions of people from 'locked in' warming.

• Under a 1.5°C warming scenario by 2030, nearly half of the global population—approximately 5.0 billion people—could be exposed to heat stress, drought, flood, or water stress, an increase from 43 percent (3.3 billion people) currently.
• Exposure to severe climate hazards is projected to increase regardless of whether warming is limited to 1.5°C or reaches 2.0°C by 2050. In a 2.0°C scenario, approximately one in three people could be exposed to a severe hazard, representing 2.0 billion additional people compared to current estimates of one in six.
• Severe heat stress could affect 1.4 billion people (one-sixth of the projected global population) by 2050 under a 2.0°C scenario, compared to 0.1 billion people today. Chronic heat stress may make it impossible to work outdoors for at least 25 percent of effective working hours annually.
• Urban water stress is primarily driven by population growth and demand, though climate change exacerbates the issue in some areas. By 2050, a 2.0°C warming scenario could result in 800 million additional people living in urban areas under severe water stress.
• Under a 2.0°C warming scenario by 2050, nearly 100 million people—about one in seven of the global rural agricultural workforce—could face severe agricultural drought, defined as seven to eight drought years per decade.
• Severe riverine or coastal flooding could expose 400 million people by 2050 under a 2.0°C warming scenario, potentially breaching current defenses and disproportionately affecting those in informal coastal settlements.
• Climate hazard exposure is highly uneven; in a 2.0°C scenario by 2050, over half of the population in lower-income countries could be affected, compared to only 10 percent in high-income countries. Two-thirds of exposed people are concentrated in ten countries, with over 90 percent of populations in Bangladesh and Pakistan potentially exposed.
• In India, approximately 850 million people (nearly half the projected population) could be exposed to a severe climate hazard under a 2.0°C scenario by 2050, representing nearly one-quarter of the global total of 3.1 billion exposed people.

APA

Walker, H. B. L. F. A. H. M. M. A. T. M. K. O. (2021). Protecting people from changing climate: Case for resilience. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/protecting-people-from-changing-climate-case-for-resilience/

Chicago

Walker, Harry Bowcott, Lori Fomenko, Alastair Hamilton, Mihir Mysore, Alexis Trittipo, Mekala Krishnan, Oliver. Protecting people from changing climate: Case for resilience. World Economic Forum, 2021. https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/protecting-people-from-changing-climate-case-for-resilience/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Walker |first1=Harry Bowcott, Lori Fomenko, Alastair Hamilton, Mihir Mysore, Alexis Trittipo, Mekala Krishnan, Oliver |title=Protecting people from changing climate: Case for resilience |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=12 November 2021 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/protecting-people-from-changing-climate-case-for-resilience/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{walker2021protecting, author = {Walker, Harry Bowcott, Lori Fomenko, Alastair Hamilton, Mihir Mysore, Alexis Trittipo, Mekala Krishnan, Oliver}, title = {{Protecting people from changing climate: Case for resilience}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2021}, month = nov, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/protecting-people-from-changing-climate-case-for-resilience/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }