Report on climate change and health in Catalonia : Informe de la Secció de Ciències Biològiques de l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans

Abstract

For over thirty years, there has been much talk regarding climate change, not only about its consequences, but also about our responsibility, considering that hu-mans are highly impacting ecosystem dynamics. As early as 1988, at the initiative of the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Or-ganization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created. The panel consists of experts on climate change and has the mission to evaluate scientific, technical and socio-economic information on the risks of climate change caused by human activity, the potential environmental and socio-eco-nomic consequences of climate change and the options for adapting to these con-sequences or to mitigate its effects.Unfortunately, the political and economic powers that dominate our planet have been systematically very critical of the experts’ conclusions and even more reluctant to the proposed measures. The IPCC has produced five major reports, the most recent in 2014. On the basis of these reports, various international con-ventions and treaties have been promoted, not without enormous difficulties. These include the Kyoto Protocol, the first international treaty to reduce green-house gas emissions, in force until 2020, and the subsequent Paris Agreements, which establish new measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after 2020. The international political community has been ratifying the treaties, with largely un-equal effective measures and the systematic boycott of US governments for the consequences that the implementation of such measures would have on their economy. [...]