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Fighting climate change is one of the biggest challenges in the 21st century. Climate change that leads to global warming has been increasingly visible in our environment. Extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes, floods, and droughts have been escalating and their acceleration can be expected in the future. They cause changes in sea levels, epidemics, large fires, etc. Increasingly, we are witnessing minor or major damage caused by these extreme weather conditions. Numerous studies have proven that climate change has negative impact on economic growth and prosperity. However, this paper starts from the premise that in addition to unequivocally identified threats, climate change also creates opportunities. The paper reaches a conclusion that climate change can adversely affect balance sheets of financial institutions. Therefore, climate change is a source of financial risk and thus a part of the mandate of central banks and supervisors in preserving financial stability. This type of risk has not been given enough attention by either supervisors or financial institutions over the past period. This paper develops a model for managing financial risks as a result of climate change.

Our paper focuses on studying the development and implementation of a comprehensive environmental safety assessment and mitigation strategy for countries of origin and destination of environmental migration. Environmental migration represents one of the key threats to the security of regions and countries and is linked to their sustainable development (or lack thereof). Moreover, it is also connected to many important social, economic as well as demographic outcomes. Global warming caused by human activities is already having a major impact on the planet and is likely to render parts of the world uninhabitable, leading to migration, displacement, and planned resettlement. The goal of the paper is also to assess the impact of future migration due to the global warming and climate change. The results of the paper demonstrate that climate impacts can trigger migration and change population distribution within the next few decades. It is also clear that migration caused by the environmental factors (such as droughts, floods, higher temperature sand more extreme weather events) would inevitably lead to the geopolitical changes with long-range impacts and effects.

Due to inadequate adaptation capacity, Sub-Saharan Africa has been depicted as the most vulnerable region with regards to global climate change, this is because of its reliance on agricultural activities for sustenance to livelihood which is highly sensitive to climate variables such as temperature variation, rainfall intensity, humidity patterns, and other extreme weather events. This paper reviews how climate change constitutes a menace to agricultural productivity and ecological protection using a qualitative approach. And importantly suggests ways to overcome such problems. Relevant literature was gathered from secondary data through articles, reports, journals from scientific publications, online websites and Conference Papers. From the review, it is revealed that climate change in Africa has a very significant effect on average temperature, rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events. It was also reviewed that climate has a negative effect on agricultural production and the ecological niche in Sub-Saharan Africa. Evidently, due to past and present climate change; agricultural land, growing season and yield as well as, ecological degradation will cause a decline to sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is the center of this problem. Climate change adversely affects biodiversity protection through aggravated weather conditions, increased temperature, increased land salinity, excessive rainfall, storms, hurricanes and tornadoes which climax in ecosystem ruin. This review has clearly confirmed that Sub-Saharan Africa is indeed the most vulnerable region to climate change. To this end, policies aimed at promoting farm level adaptation strategies and mitigation of climate change with regards to ecological protection are highly recommended. Keywords: Climate change, Ecological protection, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sustainable development

Purpose Coastal flooding has disastrous consequences on people, infrastructure, properties and the environment. Increasing flood risk as a result of global climate change is a significant concern both within the UK and globally. To counter any potential increase in future flooding, a range of potential management options are being considered. This study aims to explore future coastal management practice for flood alleviation, incorporating the influence of climate change. Design/methodology/approach The Taf estuary in South West Wales, a macro-tidal estuary which has a history of coastal flooding, was chosen as the case study in this paper to investigate the impact of coastal management interventions such as construction of hard defences, managed realignment or altering land use of affiliated ecosystems such as salt marshes on the complex hydrodynamics and hence flooding of the surrounding areas of the estuary. The study was carried out using a numerical hydrodynamic model of the Taf estuary, developed using the process-based Delft3D modelling software. Findings The role of the selected management interventions on coastal flooding was investigated using an extreme storm condition, both with and without the impact of future sea level rise. The results highlight the scale of the effect of sea level rise, with the selected management interventions revealing that minimising the increase in flooding in future requires careful consideration of the available options. Originality/value This paper explores the highlighted role of coastal management practice in future with the influence of climate change to study how effective alternative methods can be for flood alleviation.

Since 2005, a growing number of vulnerable communities and nations have used the human rights lexicon to argue their case for an urgent and ambitious response to climate change. The purpose of this Social Development Department Working paper is to examine the emergence of a new discourse linking climate change and human rights, and to assess its social and political implications, particularly as they relate to development practitioners. The scope of this paper is to explore what relevance this new discourse has on what David Kennedy calls the 'vocabularies, expertise, and sensibilities' of development practitioners (Kennedy 2005). The methodology for this paper involved interviews with academics and policy practitioners who have shaped this emerging discourse; a wide-ranging literature review of texts relevant to the fields of development, climate change and human rights; discussions with development professionals who have the daily responsibility of operationalizing approaches to reducing vulnerability and building resilience; and finally drawing upon the author's own experience leading the Maldives' government's initiative on the Human Dimensions of Climate Change and as a consultant within the Social Dimensions of Climate Change Cluster of the World Bank's Social Development Department. It is important to stress that this paper is not a legal piece. Human rights are as much about ethical demands, calls for social justice, public awareness, advocacy, and political action as they are concerned with legal norms and rules. Sen has pointed out a 'theory of human rights cannot be sensibly confined within the juridical model in which it is frequently incarcerated' (Sen 2004, 319). Consequently this piece will focus on the wider, political economy aspects of the interface between human rights and climate change. It is further appropriate to state that this is not an advocacy piece. The paper deliberately avoids being normative or prescriptive in recommending a human rights-based approach to developing climate change operations. It does examine why vulnerable populations chose to embrace this approach, why they continue to view it as a transformative strategy, and what some of the successes and challenges have been.

This paper is one component of a global study on the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change (EACC) in developing countries; the focus in this paper is human health. The main human health impacts of climate change are increased incidence of vector-borne disease (malaria), water-borne disease (diarrhea), cardio respiratory diseases, heat- and cold-related deaths, injuries and deaths from extreme weather events (flooding), and a greater prevalence of malnutrition. Adaptation measures comprise all actions taken to reduce, prevent, or treat these additional cases of disease or death, including actions outside the health sector such as disaster reduction programs, food and water security measures, and the provision of infrastructure services. For tractability and to reduce duplication with other components of the EACC study, the scope of this paper is limited to conventional public health adaptation activities, with a focus on malaria and diarrhea. This study also incorporates updates and revisions to the unit cost of prevention and treatment for malaria and diarrhea and updates to the exposure-response functions used to compute the relative risk for malaria.

In recent years, the frequentoccurrence of natural calamities in the world has gained much attention due to infrastructure and life losses. Increase in global temperature has threatened the earth’s climate, causing unpredictable and extremeweatherevents more often. These events were both short-termas well as long-term. In spite of insufficient monitoring coverage of inner areas and high altitudes, an intensification of average yearly temperature has been observed after the 20thcentury inmany regions of Asia. Pakistan has faced a number of natural disasters including severe floods, devastating earthquakes, disturbing droughts, distressing smog, extreme temperature and torrential rainfall patterns. These calamities have affected people economically, socially, physically and mentally by posing a threat to earth, its species and their livelihood. This paper was aimed to document the natural calamities in Pakistan since the beginning of 21stcentury till date. The country is facing the problemof intense and longer summers and has witnessed two intenseheat waves. Moreover, in some areas, extensive droughts are threatening crops, freshwater supply and wildlife. In recent years, the problem of smog has emerged in Pakistan, especiallyin Punjab. The problem is getting worse in every coming year due to overpopulation, cities expansion, increased emission of greenhousegases, open burning of crop residues and extreme reliance on fossil fuels for energy purpose. So far in this century, Pakistan has faced 3 droughts, 2 heat waves, 10 severe floods, 27 major earthquakes, 2 consecutive sessions of severe smog and extreme high and lowtemperatureevents. Some of the deadliest events were; 2005 Kashmir earthquake claiming 87,350 human lives and 2010 flood impacting nearly 20 million people with 1,781 causalities. Change in climate is posing a severe threat to species, livelihood of the human beingsand the earth. Global warming is causing warming of oceans and consequently rise in sea level. Climate change affects average as well as extreme temperatures hence increasing the probability climate-relateddisasters.Thus,global warming is causing a chain of catastrophic events that makethe problem even more complex to understand.

Global warming plays a principal role on the continuous increasing sea-level rise, which exposes coastal regions worldwide to flooding threat. However, the challenge is that the regional impact of SLR flooding can be variable, especially when considering multiple effects of land subsidence, long-term general sea-level rise and extreme weather conditions like storm surge. In this paper, we build module with high-resolution InSAR-derived precision DEMs with resolution of 4 m, long-term SLR trend and episodic signals of climate change to calculate the relative sea level in AD 2100 on various scenarios over the Jiaozhou Bay, one typical region of the biggest peninsula in China and an important economic centre adjoining to the Yellow Sea. The potential of TanDEM-X DEM for coastal vulnerability mapping in the Qingdao coastal area were evaluated in order to investigate the effect of the accuracy and resolution of coastal topography on the reliability and usefulness of elevation-based sea-level rise assessments. The results reveal that coastal lowland areas over the JiaozhouBay are extremely vulnerable in the following years within 21st century with use of high-accuracy TanDEM-X DEM data, which would be an advantage for further elevation-based dynamic assessments of coastal inundation events considering storm surges, abnormal high tides, and extreme precipitation events. which would be vital for locally coastal protection and decision-making.

Global climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, and flooding. This is the primary way many individuals experience climate change, which has led researchers to investigate the influence of personal experience on climate change concern and action. However, existing evidence is still limited and in some cases contradictory. At the same time, behavioral decision research has highlighted the importance of pre-existing values and beliefs in shaping how individuals experience changes in environmental conditions. This is in line with theories of motivated reasoning, which suggest that people interpret and process information in a biased manner to maintain their prior beliefs. Yet, the evidence for directional motivated reasoning in the context of climate change beliefs has recently been questioned. In the current paper, we critically review the literature on the interrelationships between personal experience of local weather anomalies, extreme weather events and climate change beliefs. Overall, our review shows that there is some evidence that local warming can generate climate change concern, but the capacity for personal experience to promote action may rely upon the experience first being attributed to climate change. Rare extreme weather events will likely have limited impact on judgments and decisions unless they have occurred recently. However, even recent events may have limited impact among individuals who hold strong pre-existing beliefs rejecting the reality of climate change. We identify limitations of existing research and suggest directions for future work.

As one of the largest agricultural countries in the world, China has always paid close attention to the sustainable development of agricultural production efficiency. However, with global climate change, extreme weather has become an exogenous factor that cannot be ignored, as it affects agricultural production. Most of the existing studies only consider the domestic natural resources and economic factors, without fully considering the external climate factors. This paper uses the super undesirable dynamic Slacks-Based Measures (SBM) under an exogenous variable model to simulate the external environmental factors by adding extreme weather days. The Dagum Gini coefficient and kernel density estimation are used to explore the regional differences in agricultural production in China. The results show that the agricultural production efficiency is higher in the eastern region, and the difference in agricultural production efficiency among the provinces in the middle and western regions is large, showing a trend of polarization. The difference in the Gini coefficient between the middle and western regions is more significant. The main contribution factor of the Dagum Gini coefficient is the inter-regional difference. The regional concentration degree of agriculture in China is decreasing, the regional distribution of agricultural water resources is more balanced, and the national regional difference gradually decreases. Finally, some suggestions are put forward, such as extreme weather control, agricultural water supply, and water-saving measures.

Climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time. Climate change can occur as a result of natural processes on Earth (e.g., tectonic motion of continents), as a result of external influences on the planet (e.g., changes in the intensity of solar radiation), or even as a result of human activity (e.g., greenhouse gas production). Human activities have boosted emissions of carbon dioxide, pushing up the temperatures. One potential impact is extreme weather and melting polar ice. There are natural climate fluctuations, but it is a fact that temperatures are growing higher now than at many other periods. This is related to the greenhouse effect which describes how some of the Sun's energy is trapped in the Earth's atmosphere. Solar energy from the Earth's surface, radiating back to space, is absorbed by greenhouse gases and re-emitted in every direction. This present paper discusses the impact of climate change and summarises the role of legal regulations in the process of this major environmental problem.

The relationship between sustainable development and climate change has been extensively addressed, but with few studies focusing on the Amazonian Rainforest. Due to its dimension and importance, preserving it is critical in order to mitigate the problem of climate change associated with rising temperatures, lower precipitation, and the increase of extreme weather events. This paper studies the effects of climate change on the sustainable development of Amazonia. A scientometric analysis was carried out which reveals the evolution of the research field in terms of the growing number of works that have been published in top journals and the main drivers of climate change in Amazonia, such as deforestation, global warming, and land use. Our results indicate that the environmental dimension of sustainable development has been the issue most studied. Our analysis leads us to recommend that policymakers implement incentives for better forest management, design policies with realistic expectations, and rely more on technical reports and approaches to implement policies. Better integration of policies at local, regional, national, and international levels is necessary in order to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Several measures to intensify the scientific approaches joining economic and social dimensions are also proposed. This work contributes to the systematization of the literature on sustainable development and climate change in Amazonia, which has not yet been done, and provides policy recommendations to researchers and professionals for a better understanding of climate change and sustainable development in the Amazonia region of Brazil.

Climate change (CC) is one of the main contributors to health emergencies worldwide. CC appears to be closely interrelated with air pollution, as some pollutants like carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and black carbon are naturally occurring greenhouse gases. Air pollution may enhance the allergenicity of some plants and, also, has an adverse effect on respiratory health. Children are a uniquely vulnerable group that suffers disproportionately from CC burden. The increasing global warming related to CC has a big impact on plants’ lifecycles, with earlier and longer pollen seasons, as well as higher pollen production, putting children affected by asthma and allergic rhinitis at risk for exacerbations. Extreme weather events may play a role too, not only in the exacerbations of allergic respiratory diseases but, also, in favouring respiratory infections. Even though paediatricians are already seeing the impacts of CC on their patients, their knowledge about CC-related health outcomes with specific regards to children’s respiratory health is incomplete. This advocates for paediatricians’ increased awareness and a better understanding of the CC impact on children’s respiratory health. Having a special responsibility for children, paediatricians should actively be involved in policies aimed to protect the next generation from CC-related adverse health effects. Hence, there is an urgent need for them to take action and successfully educate families about CC issues. This paper aims at reviewing the evidence of CC-related environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, rainfall and extreme events on respiratory allergic diseases and respiratory infections in children and proposing specific actionable items for paediatricians to deal with CC-related health issues in their clinical practice.

At present, the global effects of climate change have already gone beyond economic globalization. Man affects climate, and climate affects man. As an important part of the natural environment on which human beings live, any change of climate will have an impact on the natural ecosystem, social economic system and human health. Today, in the information age, human health is considered to be a combination of ecological, socio-cultural, economic and institutional decisions, and climate change has had an extremely important impact on human health. Therefore, this paper summarizes the trends of global climate change and the potential threats to human health, and proposes expectations for future development.

The reality of anthropogenic climate change is increasingly apparent, with significant implications for railway and other infrastructure networks. As a transport mode with a relatively small environmental impact, rail has a potentially valuable role to play in climate change mitigation. However, this potential can only be realised if railways are adapted to withstand the effects of the increasingly extreme weather associated with climate change predictions. This requirement is widely acknowledged by government and the railway industry, and the required responses to the specific potential effects of climate change are well-known and understood. However, a review of the literature indicates a need for a decision support system to prioritise the interventions required for adaptation in the face of considerable uncertainty about both the frequency and scale of future extreme weather events, and the nature and levels of future passenger and freight traffic on the railways. This paper proposes a seven-step framework for the classification of the railway network, the assessment of the economic value of traffic using the network (and thus the economic costs of weather-related disruption), the identification of appropriate remedial measures and their costs, and thus the prioritisation of these measures by means of cost-benefit analysis.

Extreme weather and climate variability have become a subject of big concern worldwide. In response, efforts have been made to evaluate the trends in climatic parameters in two geographical regions of India – Northeast (NER) and West coast region (WCR) for the period 1901-2009. This paper studies trends in cyclones and depressions, floods and droughts, thunderstorms, hailstorms, the number of fog and poor visibility days in the research areas. A detailed analysis indicates a mixed trend for cyclones and depressions, flood and drought events. Moderate and severe cold waves also show a significant decreasing trend. The same behaviour is observed in the frequency of heat waves too. There is a significant increase in thunderstorm and hailstorm frequency. During the winter season, fog and poor visibility days show a positive correlation in Imphal, Kailashahar and Agartala. It can be concluded that in the midst of global warming and climate change, the climate response is mixed for both regions.

The explosion of data in the information age has provided an opportunity to explore the possibility of characterizing the climate patterns using data mining techniques. Nigeria has a unique tropical climate with two precipitation regimes: low precipitation in the north leading to aridity and desertification and high precipitation in parts of the southwest and southeast leading to large scale flooding. In this research, four indices have been used to characterize the intensity, frequency, and amount of rainfall over Nigeria. A type of Artificial Neural Network called the self-organizing map has been used to reduce the multiplicity of dimensions and produce four unique zones characterizing extreme precipitation conditions in Nigeria. This approach allowed for the assessment of spatial and temporal patterns in extreme precipitation in the last three decades. Precipitation properties in each cluster are discussed. The cluster closest to the Atlantic has high values of precipitation intensity, frequency, and duration, whereas the cluster closest to the Sahara Desert has low values. A significant increasing trend has been observed in the frequency of rainy days at the center of the northern region of Nigeria. The work described in this paper was supported by the European Commission (EC) Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency (EACEA) Erasmus Mundus scholarship. The authors also gratefully appreciate the Information Management School of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA IMS), Department of Geoinformatics at the University of Munster and Universitat Jaume I.

Global climate change is likely to pose increasing threats in nearly all sectors and across all sub-regions worldwide (IPCC, 2014). Particularly, extreme weather events (e.g. heavy precipitations), together with changing exposure and vulnerability patterns, are expected to increase the damaging effect of storms, pluvial floods and coastal flooding. Developing climate and adaptation services for local planners and decision makers is becoming essential to transfer and communicate sound scientific knowledge about climate related risks and foster the development of national, regional and local adaptation strategies. In order to analyze the effect of climate change on pluvial flood risk and advice adaptation planning, a Regional Risk Assessment (RRA) methodology was developed and applied to the urban territory of the municipality of Venice. Based on the integrated analysis of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and risk, RRA allows identifying and prioritizing targets and sub-areas that are more likely to be affected by pluvial flood risk due to heavy precipitation events in the future scenario 2041–2050. From the early stages of its development and application, the RRA followed a bottom-up approach taking into account the requests, knowledge and perspectives of local stakeholders of the North Adriatic region by means of interactive workshops, surveys and discussions. Results of the analysis showed that all targets (i.e. residential, commercial-industrial areas and infrastructures) are vulnerable to pluvial floods due to the high impermeability and low slope of the topography. The spatial pattern of risk mostly reflects the distribution of the hazard and the districts with the higher percentage of receptors' surface in the higher risk classes (i.e. very high, high and medium) are Lido-Pellestrina and Marghera. The paper discusses how risk-based maps and statistics integrate scientific and local knowledge with the final aim to mainstream climate adaptation in the development of risk mitigation and urban plans.

Climate change is already threatening the safety of the world's food supplies and unless action is taken, it is going to get worse. Extreme weather conditions such as droughts and heavy rains are affecting agricultural productivity, and in some areas staple foods that are important to poor households in developing countries are being wiped out, resulting in higher prices to the consumers and lower income to the farmers. Considering that food is a major expenditure for the poor, this paper examines strategic interventions approaches that assures food security, foster emissions reduction to mitigate and adapt to climate change in order to reduce hunger and poverty. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n14p827

Global climate change presents long-term risks to agriculture. In general, global climate change is expected to positively affect Russian agriculture. In high and middle latitudes, global warming would expand the growing season. Acreages of agricultural crops may expand toward the north, although yields would likely be lower due to less fertile soil. However, in the south there is a possibility of drier climate, which has a negative impact on crop yields and livestock productivity. In addition, climate change is expected to increase the scarcity of water resources and encourage weed and pest proliferation, and it is expected to increase the short-term risks associated with an increase in extreme weather events and natural disasters. This paper uses data on current conditions to simulate future scenarios and examine possible impacts on crop production in the Russian Federation. It also considers adaptive measures for agriculture in response to climate change.

This paper argues that climate change poses two distinct, if related, sets of challenges for poor rural households: challenges related to the increasing frequency and severity of weather shocks and challenges related to long-term shifts in temperature, rainfall patterns, water availability, and other environmental factors. Within this framework, we examine evidence from existing empirical literature to compose an initial picture of household-level strategies for adapting to climate change in rural settings. We find that although households possess numerous strategies for managing climate shocks and shifts, their adaptive capacity is insufficient for the task of maintaining—let alone improving—household welfare. We describe the role of public policy in fortifying the ability of rural households to adapt to a changing climate. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.

The Electrical Power and Energy Industry (the Power Industry) is facing great challenges with the transition to renewable energy options and sustainability (the Green Revolution) and the growing incidence of intelligent grid technology developments to encourage Customer-side responses (Smart Grid). At the same time, there is the definite need to meet continued demand growth (albeit slower) on top of the need for refurbishment and replacement of ageing assets and human resources (the looming Skills Gap) while coping with Climate Change and maintaining reliable and price competitive energy services in a safe and healthy environment and economy. On the other hand, great challenges and needs bring with them great opportunities for radical thinking and innovation; “necessity being the mother of invention”. For example the transition to a renewable and sustainable energy world needs to happen regardless of the Climate Change debate. If the desire to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to mitigate climate change is driving Mitigation Technologies and market forces/programs such as Cap and Trade with a resultant speeding up of the green revolution then surely this is a good thing. Further information on the impacts of GHG mitigation programs and Markets can be found in the first Reference listed (McConnach, Hammons & Duffey, 2009). This reference paper provides an overview of the global responses to Climate Change and of the established and emerging GHG Markets and Programs arising from this. The impacts on the electrical power industry and how it is taking advantage of these programs and markets is discussed. This includes the impacts on policy, strategy and decision-making of major players such as governments, manufacturers, utilities, contractors and consultants and how they are leading by example within their own operations. There is strong evidence of global warming and climate change that has already happened and that will continue to happen in future. Thus the Power Industry needs to focus efforts on technologies and measures for assessing, adapting to and coping with the risks of these climate changes (Adaptation Technologies). With Canada’s vast land, water, infrastructure and natural resources, measures and initiatives for adapting to climate change and extreme weather are critically important for the protection and use of these resources. This makes sound risk management sense. The presentation of the second Reference listed reviews

Weather is the term used to describe the atmospheric conditions (heat, wetness, wind, etc.) prevailing at any one place and time. Climate is the sum of the prevailing weather conditions of a given place over a period of time, typically summed over many decades. This paper seeks to provide strategic directions for mainstreaming support for climate change within the World Bank's broader program of assistance to Vietnam. It does so by reviewing the current understanding of climate change in Vietnam and likely impacts, outlining principles to guide the Bank's engagement in this field, and applying these principles across a range of sectors, taking into account both near- and longer-term considerations. The report identifies elements of the Bank's current and planned portfolio of projects and analytical work that are contributing or will contribute to improved knowledge, planning, and actions, and it points to additional areas where new or more work seems warranted. The report represents a first iteration of a strategy for supporting Vietnam in managing the challenges posed by climate change. As more experience is gathered and as our understanding of both the science and the economics of climate change impacts in Vietnam improves, this strategy will need to be revisited and refined. While the process of climate change is expected to be a long-term phenomenon-with predictions for considerable changes through the second half of the twenty-first century, the focus of this report is on decisions and priorities that should govern the Bank's assistance during this decade. Given an array of uncertainties, extending the developing assistance planning vision much beyond 2020 is not practical. This time frame also corresponds to the government of Vietnam's own planning horizon.

The Development Marketplace 2009 focused on adaptation to climate change. This paper identifies lessons from the Marketplace and assesses their implications for adaptation support. The findings are based on: statistical tabulation of all proposals; in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of the 346 semi-finalists; and interviews with finalists and assessors. Proposals were fuelled by deep concerns that ongoing climate change and its impacts undermine development and exacerbate poverty, migration and food insecurity. Proposals addressed both local poverty and climate change challenges, and offered a wide range of approaches to render local development more resilient to current climate variability. Therefore, support to community-based adaptation should: exploit its strong local grounding and synergies with development; help connect local initiatives to higher levels; and use complementary approaches to address policy issues.

Dear Sir, Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our times. Recent events have emphatically demonstrated our growing vulnerability to climate change. The impacts of climate change range from agricultural damage, further endangering food security, to sea-level rise and the accelerated erosion of coastal zones increasing the intensity of natural disasters, species extinction, and spread of vector-borne diseases. This issue is of immense importance for every global citizen. Hence, globally, it requires an initiative against the devastating effects of climate change.[1] Climate change already contributes to the global burden of disease and this contribution is expected to grow in the future. Direct as well as indirect effects of climate change are alarming to the public health authorities.[2] The health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society released a report on October 2008 called “Deadly Dozen: Wildlife diseases in the age of climate change.” This report lists 12 pathogens that could spread into new regions as a result of climate change. All have potential impacts to human and wildlife health as well as global economies. The study examined the nuts and bolts of deleterious impacts of climate change on the health of wild animals and the cascading effects on human populations. The “Deadly Dozen” list is illustrative only of the broad range of infectious diseases that threaten humans and animals, it is not a comprehensive one, and subsequent studies may eliminate pathogens from the list of those enabled by climatic factors. The list includes those pathogens that may spread as a result of changing temperatures and precipitation levels. The list includes avian influenza, Babesiosis, cholera, Ebola, intestinal and external parasites, Lyme disease, Plague, Rift Valley Fever, sleeping sickness also known as trypanosomiasis, tuberculosis and yellow fever. It also included harmful algal blooms off global coasts that create toxins that are deadly to both humans and wildlife commonly called “red tides’. It builds upon the recommendations included in a recently published paper titled “Wildlife health as an indicator of climate change,’ which appears in a newly released book, “Global climate change and extreme weather events: Understanding the contributions to infectious disease emergence”, published by the National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine.[3] To conclude, as per the findings of such reports, climate change already contributes to the global burden of disease and this contribution is expected to grow in the future. Emerging infectious diseases are a major threat to the health and economic stability of the world. As per the report, monitoring of wildlife health provides us with a sensitive and quantitative means of detecting changes in the environment. The best defense, according to the authors of these reports, is a good offense in the form of wildlife monitoring to detect how these diseases are spreading so that health professionals can learn and prepare to mitigate their impact.[3] It is essential for the health policy planners and administrators to consider climate change as a major public health problem in the near future and plan accordingly.