Many studies have been prepared to assess the potential impacts and risks of climate change. This page is intended to provide you with some quick links to some of these assessments. Note that some assessments are prepared to provide a global or international perspective. Some have been prepared to look at national implications, while still others look at regional impacts or even economic sector or other effects.

Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the Government Economic Service and Adviser to the British Government on the economics of climate change and development, presented a report on the Economics of Climate Change in 2006. Mr. Stern and his research team concluded that, "...climate change is a serious global threat, and it requires an urgent global response....Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world access to water, food production, health, and the environment. Hundreds of millions of people could suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the world warms." Click here for the short version of the Executive Summary.

A study commissioned by the Government of Australia in 2005 concluded possible outcomes of climate change could include: an increase in national average temperatures; more heatwaves and fewer frosts; possible reductions in average rainfall and run-off in parts of the country; more severe wind speeds in cyclones, associated with storm surges being progressively amplified by rising sea levels; an increase in severe weather events; and a change in ocean currents, possible affecting coastal waters. Click here to see this study prepared for the Australian Greenhouse Office.

In 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an Executive Order calling for scientfic reports to be prepared every 2 years on the potential impact of global warming on certain sectors of the California economy. These reports are available in English and Spanish. The 2006 report noted that, "Because most global warming emissions remain in the atmosphere for decades or centuries, the choices we make today greatly influence the climate of our children and grandshildren will inherit. The quality of life they experience will depend on if and how rapidly California and the rest of the world reduce these emissions." It also noted that, if emissions proceed at a medium to high rate, temperatures in California are expected to rise 4.7 to 10.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. Further impacts would include substantial loss of snow-pack, increased risk of large wildfires, and reductions in the quality and quantity of certain agricultural products.

According to Environment Canada, "climate change projectsions suggest that over the next century, further warming of 1 to 3.5 degrees Celcius will occur...the impacts of climate change on our forests, fish populations, and agriculture could be extreme." A list of more specific potential impacts includes: longer growing seasons in some places, but risks to agriculture such as moisture deficits, pests, disease and fires; impacts on fish populations; effects on hydroelectric generating potential (higher in some places and lower in other places); risks to waterfowl populations due to lower water levels in lakes, rivers and wetlands; and changes in the occurrence and severity of extreme events, which would have serious implications for the security and integrity of Canada's natural resources, social systems, and insfrastructure with subsequent implications for the insurance industry and supporting public sectors.