Emerging countries would feel the “catastrophic” impact of ever-increasing human-induced climate change more than developed economies, World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA) CEO Morne du Plessis said on Friday.

As the effects of climate change increasingly become more visible, South Africa needed to develop an inclusive and resilient economy to decrease the overall risks to the nation.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) “95% accurate” fifth assessment report, ‘Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis’ had confirmed that evidence of the warming of the climate system was unequivocal and it had been caused by humans.

Despite a rapid move to adopt renewable energy worldwide, efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels and initiatives to limit the amount of energy-related carbon emitted per unit of gross domestic product, which were needed to contain global warming to the IPCC-established carbon budget of 2 °C over the next 89 years, the surface temperature would most likely rise by 4 °C on average by 2100.

This puts the world’s climate path on the most extreme scenario illustrated in the report on climate science, eliciting warnings of “serious and far-reaching implications” of levels this high.

Even the past 30 years have been recorded as the warmest in more than 1 400 years, WWF-SA chairperson Valli Moosa said.

Addressing the WFF-SA 2013 Living Planet conference, in Sandton, Du Plessis said, over the last few hundred years, carbon emissions had never registered above 300 parts per million (ppm), but over the last 100 years, carbon emissions had peaked to nearly 400 ppm.

“We are heading to a 400 ppm future,” he stressed.

Increases in global average temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising sea levels, as well as the resultant increasing frequency of natural disasters, had devastating economic impacts and burdened economies.

The report showed that changes in extreme weather and climate events were already happening, with economic losses from climate extremes increasing. Further, 95% of lives lost from natural disasters had been in developing countries.

Africa, host to the majority of least developed countries worldwide, was susceptible to climate change, with an extensive impact on people on the back of increased water stress, food insecurity and economic losses from weather- and climate-related disasters, explained Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa.

A new climate change agreement needed to be entered into urgently, Moosa added, to mitigate and reverse the impact through the reduction of emissions and adapt to the impact of climate change, with Molewa suggesting the adjustment of the nation’s ecological, social and economic systems, and a “change [in] the way we do things”.

“Our processes, practices and structures must be properly aligned to reduce the impacts of and vulnerability to climate change now, as well as increase the social, economic and environmental resilience to future impacts,” she stated.

WWF-SA commented that a significant shift in the structure of South Africa’s water-scarce, high-emissions and inequitable economy was required to deal with changes, with the development of a new economic model that would include mitigating and adaptive measures to tackle climate change impacts and risks, and ensure more sustainable use of the country’s resources.

The fund promoted a transition from investments in carbon-intensive and unsustainable water-use initiatives to investments in resource-efficient, low-carbon projects.

“The sooner policymakers, investors and companies in South Africa take action, the less they will lock in investments in carbon-intensive technology, processes and outputs.

“Mitigation in the near term would help limit the costs of reducing emissions in the long term and increase opportunities for investments in low-carbon, energy-efficient technologies, processes, infrastructure and industries,” the nonprofit organisation explained.

Du Plessis added that in the past human society had undergone major transitions, including the move from hunter/gatherer to an agricultural civilisation, and now a “sustainability transition” was gaining momentum.

But, emerging countries could not reduce their emissions on par with developed economies – which would take “huge” financial and technical resources – without leaving the growing economies at a competitive disadvantage and placing further pressures on the poor.