Homes of 500 mln people to be submerged if temperature rise hits 4 °C
The homes of roughly 470 to 760 million people across the world might be submerged if the global temperature rise hits 4 degrees Celsius which would lead to an unstoppable rise of sea levels over the coming centuries, according to a report by the non-profit organization Climate Central. At the same time, the report pointed out that if global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius, the number of people influenced would be as low as 130 million. Despite the report's somber forecast, the recently concluded Paris climate change conference has taken a promising step toward preventing a terrible catastrophe from taking place. Nearly 200 countries signed a new agreement, aiming to keep the global average temperature rise by the end of this century well below 2 degrees Celsius while striving to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It demonstrates that every country in the world has pledged to cut emissions and take concrete actions to address climate change.