ABSTRACT
Often, people think of climate risk deterministically, where the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere determines the level of climate change. At current levels of emissions and the observed change in the global average temperature, atmospheric concentrations are only half the story. In its 2012 Special Report “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation”, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) articulated that risk is the intersection of climatic and non-climatic factors. The latter are largely determined by development. This implies that development policies like the Sustainable Development Goals are inherently tied to climate impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation. In its latest “Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°”, the IPCC has been more emphatic about this message. This is based on recent work by the scientific community on a two-part scenario framework that makes the importance of development abundantly clear through so-called Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs). This chapter briefly explains insights emerging from the framework and points out Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) embedded within the SSPs. The chapter concludes with a discussion of findings from the literature on the climatic and economic impacts of failing to achieve SDGs in a timely fashion.
