Climate change and pandemics: New challenges for science and technology

Abstract

Global warming is one of the major challenges that needsto be dealt with in the coming decades. In particular, theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a special report in 2018,[1] establishing the need fora limit to the global ambient temperature at the end of thepresent century (2100) of 2 C and, if possible, even 1.5 C,above the pre-industrial level. To attain these temperaturevalues, the United Nations asked all countries to presentNationally Determined Contributions (NDC), describingthe way how they would act to attain the upper limit of2 C; these include how to reduce greenhouse gases(GHG) and also to identify possible financial support formitigation and adaptation actions. However, scientificanalysis of the sum of the NDCs revealed less reductionthan needed, with final temperatures at 2100 in the rangeof 2.7?3.6 C.[2] Significant negative impacts, e.g., floodingin some regions and drought in others, glacier melting,food security concerns, disease vector propagation to highlatitude and altitude, ocean acidification, coral destruction,among others,[3] would occur on the whole planet if thelimits suggested by IPCC are not attained.