Impacts of global climate change

Abstract

The warming of the climate of the Earth has been unequivocal, most notably due to the mancaused increase of atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, leading to intensification of the greenhouse effect. Projections for the future explain that we are commited to further, possibly even more intense, warming, whose rate depends on the scenario of socio-economic development and effective climate change mitigation policy. If the global emissions grow in uncontrolled way and carbon sequestration potential decreases, the warming can attain a dangerous dimension. Global warming induces change in all variables of hydroclimatic systems. As demonstrated in the present contribution, the impacts of global climat change – both advantageous and (more often) adverse can be noted in all regions of the globe and in all systems and sectors, some of which are particularly vulnerable. Yet, many of these impacts can be avoided, reduced, or delayed, by effective climate change mitigation.