Climate change could devastate the world's largest economic powers, report warns
Climate change could devastate the world's largest economic powers by 2050 if no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a new report has warned. The research by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) has been released on the eve of the COP26 conference in , which begins on Sunday. It warns that the UK, US and Germany are among the countries that will be affected, as well as , France, , Mexico, Japan, China and Russia. 'From droughts, heatwaves and sea level rise, to dwindling food supplies and threats to tourism these findings show how severely climate change will hit the world's biggest economies, unless we act now,' said Donatella Spano, from the Italian research centre CMCC. The report estimated that G20 countries will lose 4 per cent of their total economic output by 2050 and 8 per cent by 2100 if emissions aren't slashed dramatically. G20 countries are responsible for around 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. They all signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, which set the goal of keeping the global temperature rise below 2C (3.6F) and ideally holding it to 1.5C (2.7F). The report found that the impacts of global warming, including extreme heat and rising sea levels, are already causing death and damage to the world's leading economies. France and Indonesia could lose one-fifth or more of their fishing catch because of warmer ocean temperatures, while damage to coastal infrastructure caused by sea level rises may cost Japan $468 billion (339 billion) and South Africa $945 billion (684 billion) by 2050, according to estimates by researchers. They also warn that if global warming continues unabated, Europe will have 90,000 deaths from extreme heat each year by the end of this century, up from 2,700 currently. In the northern US, the Zika virus which has previously only being transmitted locally in Florida and Texas could threaten 83 per cent of the country's population by 2050 if emissions remain high and temperatures keep rising, the report suggests. More than 92 per cent of people in the US could also be at risk from dengue fever. The CMCC, which works with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released the report just days before the start of the United Nations' climate change summit in Scotland. 'As scientists, we know that only rapid action to tackle emissions and adapt to climate change will limit the severe impacts of climate change,' said Spano. 'At the upcoming summit, we invite G20 governments to listen to the science and put the world on a path to a better, fairer and more stable future.' The release of the report comes 24 hours after another paper by the UN Environment Programme warned that current national commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions put Earth on track for a 'catastrophic' 2.7C (4.8F) temperature rise this century. Scientists who compiled the Emissions Gap report said carbon-cutting plans submitted by countries ahead of COP26 are nowhere near enough to keep the 1.5C temperature threshold within sight. When added together, the plans slash greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 by around 7.5 per cent compared to the previous pledges made five years ago. However, that is way off the 55 per cent of cuts needed by the same date to ensure the 1.5C increase remains a realistic target, experts said. The current pledges would instead see the world warm by 2.7C this century, a revelation that is 'The emissions gap is the result of a leadership gap,' he said at the launch of the study. 'But leaders can still make this a turning point to a greener future instead of a tipping point to climate catastrophe.' Inger Andersen, executive director of Unep, said: 'To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions: eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts. 'The clock is ticking loudly.' Despite the warning, there is still hope that if long-term net-zero goals pledged by around 50 countries plus the EU are met then this could shave 0.5C off the temperature rise by 2100. It would limit the global temperature rise to 2.2C rather than 2.7C but would still be above the Paris Agreement target of keeping it below 2C and ideally holding it to 1.5C.