Climate expert says we need to focus on effects on people

SOCIETY is talking about climate change in the “wrong way” with not enough focus on how it affects people, a leading scientist has said.

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Dr Friederike Otto, who leads work on attributing the role of climate change in devastating heatwaves, floods and storms, said extreme weather was the way that people experienced rising global temperatures.

And she said climate change was a human rights issue, harming people’s lives and livelihoods - particularly the most vulnerable around the world.

Amid a growing pushback against the drive to cut greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” to curb climate change, Dr Otto warned the costs of not doing net zero were “massively expensive”, for example continuing to have high energy bills from not insulating homes and importing gas from Russia.

But taking action on climate change had numerous co-benefits, she said.

In the UK, tackling the cost-of-living crisis with subsidies for insulating homes “would not just lower bills, but of course lower emissions and at the same time help people to be more adapted to extreme heat”, she said.