Abstract
The risks of global climate change go from high to very high with an average increase in temperature of 4 °C or more. This includes serious and generalised impacts related to the extinction of endangered species, great risks to global and regional food security, in addition to climate risks associated to alterations in extreme events like heat waves, extreme rainfall and coastal flooding, which are already moderate to high with 1 °C increase in temperature. The consequences of a dangerous climate change due to 4 °C or above warming are suggested to be devastating: the inundation of coastal cities; increasing risks for food production potentially leading to higher malnutrition rates; many dry regions becoming dryer, wet regions, wetter; unprecedented heat waves in many regions, especially in the tropics; substantially exacerbated water scarcity and drought in many regions; increased frequency of high-intensity tropical cyclones; and irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems (World Bank, 2012).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alvalá, R. C., Cunha, A. P. M. A., Brito, S. B., Seluchi, M. E., Marengo, J. A., Moraes, O. L. L., et al. (2017). Drought monitoring in the Brazilian semiarid region, In Press, Annais da Academia Brasilieira de Ciencias do Brasil.
Clarke, et al. (2014). In O. Edenhofer et al. (Eds.), Climate change 2014: Mitigation of climate change, Contribution of working group III to the Fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (pp. 413–510). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Collins, M., Knutti, R., Arblaster, J., Dufresne, J.-L., Fichefet, T., Friedlingstein, P., et al. (2013). Long-term climate change: Projections, commitments and irreversibility. In T. F. Stocker, D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S. K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex, & P. M. Midgley (Eds.), Climate change 2013: The physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press.
IPCC. (2014). Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. Geneva: IPCC, p. 151
King, D., Schrag, D., et al. (2015). Climate change: a risk assessment. Report commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, available online at http://www.csap.cam.ac. uk/media/uploads/files/1/climatechange–a-risk-assessment-v9-spreads.pdf
Kreft, S., Eckstein, D., & Melchior, I. (2017). Global Climate Risk Index. Who suffers most from extreme weather events? Weather-related loss events in 2015 and 1996 to 2015.
Marengo, J. A., Alves, L. M., Alvalá, R. C., Cunha, A. P., Brito, S. S., & Moraes, O. L. L. (2017). Climatic characteristics of the 2010–2016 drought in the semiarid Northeast Brazil region, Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (2017) (Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences) Printed version ISSN 0001–3765 / Online version ISSN 1678–2690 http://dx.doi.org/DOI.
Marengo, J. A., Torres, R. R., & Alves, L. M. (2016). Drougth in northeast Brasil – Past, present and future. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 20, 1–12.
Nobre, C. A., Marengo, J. A., Seluchi, M. E., Cuartas, L. A., & Alves, L. M. (2016). Some characteristics and impacts of the drought and water crisis in southeastern Brazil during 2014 and 2015. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 8, 252–262.
PBMC. (2016). Mudanças Climáticas e Cidades. Relatório Especial do Painel Brasileiro de Mudanças Climáticas. In S. K. Ribeiro & A. S. Santos (Eds.), PBMC, COPPE – UFRJ (p. 116). Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. isbn:978-85-285-0344-9.
Riahi, K., et al. (2015). Locked into Copenhagen pledges—Implication of short-term emission targets for the cost and feasibility of long-term climate goals Technol. Forecast Social Change, 90A, 8–23.
Rogelj, J., Luderer, G., Pietzcker, R. C., Kriegler, E., Schaeffer, M., Krey, V., & Riahi, K. (2015). Energy system transformations for limiting end-of-century warming to below 1.5 [deg] C. Nature Climate Change, 5(6), 519–527.
Strauss, B. H., Kulp, S., & Levermann, A. (2015). Mapping choices: Carbon, climate, and rising seas — Our global legacy. Princeton, NJ: Climate Central.
World Bank. (2012). 4C: Turn down the heat. A report for the World Bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics, November 2012, Washington, DC 20433.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nobre, C.A., Marengo, J.A., Soares, W.R., Soares, A.P. (2019). Introduction. In: Nobre, C., Marengo, J., Soares, W. (eds) Climate Change Risks in Brazil. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92881-4_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92881-4_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-92880-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-92881-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)