Climate Futures – Responses to Climate Change in 2030

The scientific community is continuing to broaden its understanding about the environmental impacts of climate change. Models can project the temperature rises and rainfall trends at a regional, and soon even a national level. Understanding of complex climate feedback loops is increasing quickly. Much less is known, however, about how people, communities, countries and economies will respond to climate change.

What will our climate changing world look like in 2030? Will climate change unite the world or divide it? Will we be on the way to solving climate change, or will the challenges be too great? What can business contribute to the solutions? This report develops five world scenarios depicting the outcomes of different responses to climate change, all set in 2030, to explore possible answers to these questions.

The report has three main sections: Firstly, it explores the factors that are likely to define the human responses to climate changes. Second, the five scenarios are presented in detail. Finally, the implications of these scenarios are explored.