Our Scans · (LF.13) Climate Action · Weekly Summary

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

• [New] Climate change could cause 14.5 million deaths by 2050 as a result of extreme weather events, including floods, droughts, heat waves, tropical storms, wildfires, and rising sea levels. Stanford Social Innovation Review
• [New] By 2030, the world is projected to face a 40% global water deficit under the business-as-usual climate scenario. InternationalDayForests
• [New] There has been a fundamental shift in climate transition assumptions in the last year and a half, with insurers facing a dual challenge: intensifying physical risks and an evolving transition risk profile. Commercial Risk
• [New] As part of UNFCCC reporting guidelines and the Cancun Adaptation Framework, many GCC countries have started developing National Adaptation Plans that urge countries to outline climate risks and coping strategies, laying the foundation for coordination and climate finance. OBSERVER RESEARCH FOUNDATION ( ORF )
• [New] As climate disclosure regimes proliferate globally, California's rules are expected to become a de facto reporting benchmark for large U.S. companies, accelerating the integration of climate risk and emissions data into mainstream financial decision-making. ESG News
• [New] Scope 3 emissions disclosures will become mandatory in 2027, while climate risk reporting under SB 261 remains voluntary due to ongoing legal challenges. / USA ESG News
• [New] More than 4,000 U.S. companies doing business in California are expected to fall under the new climate reporting requirements. ESG News
• [New] There is global consensus across central banks, financial supervisors, and securities regulators that physical climate risks (extreme weather, asset stranding) and transition risks (policy changes, technology shifts) must be integrated into enterprise risk management and board-level governance. Generation Impact Global
• [New] EU and Swiss regulatory frameworks explicitly require in-scope companies and financial institutions to develop and disclose credible transition plans - showing how capital expenditure, business model, and strategy will evolve to align with climate targets. Generation Impact Global
• [New] Looking ahead, US agriculture exports will increasingly depend on sustainability, climate resilience, digital monitoring, and rapid policy adaptation. Farmonaut
• [New] Despite international trade tensions, climate variability, and unpredictable global food supply chains, US agriculture remains vital and adaptive. Farmonaut
• [New] Along with changes to post-Brexit subsidies, food producers have been struggling with unpredictable weather amid the climate crisis, lower prices for their crops on global markets and the impending introduction of inheritance tax on agricultural properties. The Guardian
• [New] High-intensity rainfall flooding is an escalating global urban hazard, with exposure growing as cities expand and climate change intensifies. Nature
• As climate change accelerates and the Arctic Ocean shifts from year-round to purely seasonal ice cover, a transpolar passage will open up by the mid-21st century, if not sooner. commonspace.eu
• In South Africa, flooding in low-lying river basin areas such as the Limpopo region occurs frequently due to intense rainfall and climate variability, disrupting livelihoods and increasing malaria transmission risk. The Conversation
• Antarctica's melting glaciers may not be the climate ally scientists once hoped for. ScienceDaily
• For Quebec, the key challenge will be to capitalize on its strengths - water, energy and a relatively temperate climate - while reducing its vulnerabilities through proactive adaptation of infrastructure, land-use planning and its economic model. Westmount Magazine
• The arrival of climate migrants, whether from other provinces, the United States or elsewhere in the world, will profoundly reshape the dynamics of cities and regions. Westmount Magazine
• For India, where industrialization, urbanization, and climate change create interconnected risks, integrating chemical speciation studies into national environmental policy is no longer optional - it is imperative. Chemistry World
• Wildfires sweeping across the vast boreal forests of Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia could be causing more climate damage than scientists once believed. SciTechDaily
• As a result, water utilities serving 67 million customers across the U.S. are at high risk from climate hazards, roughly a fifth of the entire U.S. population. ABC News
• France will boost nuclear energy and push for faster adoption of electric vehicles to cut its reliance on fossil fuels by 2035, as European countries become even more divided over the direction of climate policy. youth4planet

Last updated: 16 March 2026