Global warming due to uncontrolled emission of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the beginning of industrial age and more specifically since the nineties, and the resultant changes in global climate have posed the most severe challenges to sustainable development of the world. The average surface temperature of the world has increased by almost 1.5 C during the past 150 years. The polar, high mountains and oceans have faced higher rise in temperature resulting in glacial melts, sea level rise, changes in precipitation patterns and thermal expansion of the oceans. The cumulative impacts of these changes have adversely impacted agriculture, food and nutrition security, safe water availability, forests and bio diversity, human settlements and global burden of diseases.

Climate change has directly contributed to unprecedented rise in extreme climatic events like hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons and storm surges; severe windstorms, cloudbursts and lightning; riverine, flash, urban, coastal and glacial lake outburst floods; heavy rainfall and extreme precipitation events; droughts, aridity and desertification; heat waves, forest and bush fires etc. Various slow onset climate impacts like soil and water salinization, ocean acidification, sea level rise and inundation coastal areas and islands, pests and disease outbreaks have further compounded the disaster risks. As per a UN report there has been 74.4% increase in number of climate related disasters during the last two decades compared to the previous two decades. A total number of 1.23 million persons lost their lives in disasters, 4.03 billion were affected and economic losses of USD 2.9 trillion were suffered by the countries during the period¹.

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