Paul Hennessy | Lightrocket | Getty Images The US must step up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades as climate change exacerbates disasters and threatens water supplies and public health across the country, according to a major draft report released on Monday the federal government. “The things Americans value most are at risk,” the authors of the National Climate Assessment wrote in the 1,695-page draft. “Many of the harmful effects that people across the country are already experiencing will worsen as warming increases and new risks emerge.” Over the past 50 years, the US has warmed about 68% faster than the planet as a whole, with temperatures rising 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.4 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels. The land has warmed faster than the ocean, higher latitudes have warmed faster than lower latitudes, and the Arctic has warmed faster than all, the report says. Climate-related disasters cause economic losses through damage to infrastructure, disruptions to critical services and losses in property values, the report says. The country has experienced an average of nearly eight billion dollars in disasters each year over the past four decades, but the past five years has seen that average rise to nearly 18 events per year. The report also outlined how millions of Americans could be displaced by climate disasters, such as severe wildfires in the US West and rising sea levels in coastal cities. Climate change is also hurting regional economies by reducing crop yields in the Midwest and disrupting fishing activities in Alaska, among other places. The authors highlighted how a series of disasters fueled by climate change have disproportionately burdened US communities with lower carbon footprints. The white ring of Lake Meads tub reveals the historic drop in water levels near the Hoover Dam on September 16, 2022 in Boulder City, Nevada. David Mcnew | Getty Images “The impacts of climate change are felt most acutely by communities that are already overburdened, including Indigenous peoples, people of color, and low-income communities,” the authors wrote. “These frontline communities experience harmful climate impacts first and worst, yet are often the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.” The report also called for action. The country cut emissions by 12% between 2007 and 2019 thanks to advances in renewable energy technology such as wind and solar power and persistent reductions in coal use. However, to meet the Biden administration’s goal of a net-zero economy by 2050, emissions must fall by more than 6 percent each year, the authors wrote. “Threats to the people and places we love, our livelihoods and our hobbies can be reduced now through proactive, proven efforts to meaningfully reduce emissions and adapt to inevitable change in ways that address inequities across the country.” The authors noted several actions with short-term benefits, such as accelerating low-carbon technologies, enhancing public transit, incentivizing purchases of renewable energy and electric vehicles, and improving crop management. But they warned that many of the adaptation efforts being made by states and cities are underfunded and merely “incremental” rather than transformative. A house burns as the Oak Fire burns in the area on July 23, 2022 near Mariposa, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images “The worst consequences of climate change can still be avoided or limited by large-scale actions that quickly decarbonize the economy and prepare communities for impacts,” the authors wrote. “Longer-term planning and investment in transformative mitigation and adaptation offers the opportunity to create a healthier, fairer and more resilient nation.” The congressionally mandated report comes as leaders around the world meet this week at the UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt to consider methods and set goals for tackling climate change. The full report is due to be released in 2023 after a period of public comment and peer review. The government is required to publish the National Climate Assessment every four years.
