Winrock’s Senior Technical Director for Climate featured in Inside Climate News
Winrock International’s Senior Technical Director for Climate Molly Hellmuth is featured in an article published in Inside Climate News about the recent release of the U.S. Fifth National Climate Assessment. Hellmuth served as the lead author of the international chapter of the NCA5, a Congressionally mandated assessment that is published once every four years.
The report, released officially at the White House in Washington, D.C., charts climate change’s growing impact in the U.S., while stressing the benefits of action. The assessment sees sea level rise of 11 inches by 2050 and says the transition to wind and solar energy must go two-to-10 times faster to meet U.S. goals for reducing greenhouse gases, the article says.
“Researchers are increasingly looking at global interdependencies and how climate impacts that happen in one part of the world can cause disruptions in global security, economic trade and human welfare, similar to what we saw with COVID-19,” Hellmuth says in the article.
Hellmuth led development of the report’s international chapter, working closely with other expert contributors.
Here’s more from the Inside Climate News piece:
“Hellmuth and her coauthors paint a stark portrait of the toll climate change is taking on the world’s most vulnerable. Approximately 26 million people fall into poverty annually due to extreme weather events, like Pakistan’s climate-fueled flooding earlier this year, and global warming is expected to significantly increase mortality in the Global South in the coming decades, exacerbating inequalities and affecting people whose countries have contributed the least to the problem. Ensuring that developing countries adapt to climate change isn’t just a strategic U.S. interest touching on security, moral and economic realms — it’s also an opportunity for American businesses to pioneer new solutions and technology, the report says.
Read the full Inside Climate News article here.