Without action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, average global temperatures will rise by 1.4oC to 5.8oC between 1990 and 2100.
Along with increases in precipitation, average global sea levels will rise between 9 and 88 cm by 2100, which has implications for the 50 to 70 percent of the world's population that currently live in low-lying coastal areas, mainly in developing countries.
Each year, nearly 10 million hectares of land are permanently degraded.
The impact is most severe in dryland regions, especially in Africa.
Land degradation affects some 250 million people directly, and the livelihoods of nearly a billion more may be at some risk.
Yearly losses are estimated at some $50 billion worldwide.
Access to Clean Water and Sanitation
Globally, 783 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. However, between 1990 and 2010, more than 2 billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells, meeting one of the Millennium Development Goals.
2.5 billion people lack access to basic sanitation, contributing to the deaths of more than 1.5 million children each year.
Urbanization
By the year 2015, over half of the world's people will live in urban communities; by 2030 that figure is estimated to rise to 95 percent.
In developing countries, the majority will live in under-equipped, substandard housing and will suffer from the environmental impacts of over-crowding and lack of basic infrastructure.
