What Would Cities Look Like With 3 Degrees C of Warming vs. 1.5? Far More Hazardous and Vastly Unequal

This article from the World Resource Institute (WRI) can help you understand the difference between climate impacts in a world with 1.5 °C warming versus one with 3 °C warming. Based on WRI’s own study, it shows the potential increases in heat and disease-related hazards across nearly 1,000 large cities that make up a quarter of the global population. It compares heat wave duration and frequency under both levels of warming and examines the rising demand for cooling and thus energy across geographies. It also explores how rising temperatures affect disease vectors, showing that tropical viruses like Dengue, Yellow fever, and Zika are expected to become major health risks in some regions. It breaks down these conditions related to heat and disease across regions and income levels and reveal how climate risks compound and amplify the impacts on low-income cities. These insights, combined with compelling data visualisations, will be most useful to sustainability and risk teams.