Floods, droughts, heat waves, and storms have become increasingly frequent and intense around the planet. Events that once a century once a century are now repeated every decade — or less. Behind this transformation is the climate emergency, a profound imbalance in the Earth system caused by human activity. This crisis affects the lives of millions of people, the economy of entire countries, and the stability of fundamental ecosystems, requiring an immediate response before the impacts become irreversible.

What is the climate crisis?

The climate crisis is the aggravation of the alteration in the balance of the planet's climate system caused by human beings, with increasingly intense and frequent effects. Climate change refers to the scientific phenomenon of global warming and changes in weather patterns, while the climate crisis emphasizes the urgency and emergency seriousness of the current situation.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body responsible for evaluating climate science, global warming is unequivocally caused by human activities. Stela Herschman, climate policy specialist at the Climate Observatory (OC), explains that the climate crisis is manifested in various ways, such as extreme weather events — such as droughts, floods, storms and heat waves — and phenomena such as rising sea levels, ocean warming and acidification, and the loss of biodiversity.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 2024 was the hottest year on record, with the global temperature approximately 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. “Instead of happening once every 100 years, a flood like the one that hit Rio Grande do Sul can happen once every ten years, maybe every five years. And they're becoming more intense,” said Stela.

What are the causes of the crisis

The main cause of the climate emergency is the burning of fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — which releases polluting gases into the atmosphere and intensifies the planet's natural greenhouse effect. In addition, deforestation, intensive agriculture, and unsustainable industrial processes also contribute significantly to the worsening of the crisis.

Impacts of the crisis

The consequences of the climate emergency affect multiple dimensions of life. According to the Sixth IPCC Report, billions of people suffer from extreme events that cause deaths, destroy infrastructure, and displace populations. “We had droughts in the Amazon for two straight years. That situation was unprecedented. There are impacts on an entire society that uses the river for survival, for all its needs,” explains Stela.

In Brazil, where the agricultural sector is one of the economic engines, the situation is worrying. “Our agriculture is not irrigated and depends a lot on a stable climate. Weather events cause crop losses, and this causes an economic crisis”, warns Stela.

There are also costs of rebuilding what was destroyed — bridges, roads, and electrical grids, for example. More intense tropical cyclones due to ocean warming, record temperatures affecting productivity and public health, and the loss of biodiversity are examples of how the problem interferes with economic and social reality.

Global and local solutions to the climate crisis

Tackling the climate emergency requires a coordinated collective effort at multiple scales. At the international level, the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, is a binding treaty in which the signatories undertake to submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to limit warming to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C. “We need a continuous and collective commitment, because no one is going to solve the climate crisis alone and no one is immune to it,” said Stela.

In the private sector, companies seek to make ambitious climate-related commitments. Suzano, for example, a Brazilian multinational pulp and paper producer, has climate targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), an initiative that validates emission reduction objectives based on climate science. Suzano's objectives include, for example, the commitment to reduce by 50.4% the emissions of scopes 1 (greenhouse gases that a company generates as a direct result of its operation) and 2 (indirect emissions from the consumption of electrical or thermal energy that are not produced by the company itself, but used by it.) by 2032. The company also committed to having 80% of its suppliers and customers with science-based targets by 2028, expanding the positive impact to the entire value chain. Learn about Suzano's other sustainability commitments here.

The climate crisis in Brazil

Brazil has faced an escalation of extreme weather events. In 2024, there were three unprecedented disasters: the floods in Rio Grande do Sul, which caused more than 180 deaths and losses of approximately US$ 7 billion; the historic drought in the Amazon, which affected 745,000 people and dried up entire rivers, including the record low of the Rio Negro in Manaus; and extreme heat waves in the central region, with temperatures exceeding 41°C. Scientific projections indicate that Brazil could face up to 128,000 climate disasters between 2024 and 2050, twice as many as the last three decades.

To face this scenario, the country presented its new NDC to the UN in November 2024, setting the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions between 59% and 67% by 2035 compared to 2005 levels. Command and control actions were also implemented: according to official data, deforestation in the Amazon was reduced by 30.6% between August 2023 and July 2024, while in the Cerrado the reduction was 25.7%, avoiding the emission of 400.8 million tons of CO2. The Brazilian commitment is underpinned by the Climate Plan and the Pact for Ecological Transformation between the Three Powers, signed in 2024.

UN vision on the climate crisis

The UN formally recognized the problem of the climate crisis in 1992 with the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a treaty adopted by 198 nations to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Since its entry into force, the signatories have held annual Conferences of the Parties, the COPs, to decide by consensus how to address the problem.

The agreements recognize common but differentiated responsibilities — the nations that have historically contributed the most to emissions must bear the lion's share of the costs. However, the consequences do not follow that same geographical logic: they are scattered around the world and disproportionately affect poorer territories that have less resilience to deal with them.

The COPs evolved the goals imposed from the top down, as in the case of the Kyoto Protocol (1997), to a more inclusive approach with the Paris Agreement, in which each nation defines its own contribution through the NDCs, which reflects national capacities and circumstances.

Is it possible to reverse the climate crisis?

“Our generation is not going to live in the old climate, we have already contracted this crisis,” says Stela. Although the impacts are part of the current reality, it is possible to limit their severity and avoid the worst scenarios of global warming.

Each additional fraction of a degree in Earth's temperature multiplies the risks of reaching points of no return - such as the collapse of the Amazon or the melting of the polar ice caps. For this reason, the concept of “overshoot” (a temporary overshoot) became central: it refers to the period in which the global temperature exceeds the warming of 1.5°C before returning to safer levels. For Stela, “if the crisis deepens, we will reach a point of no return. We could lose the Amazon, and entire areas of the globe could become uninhabitable.”

The reduction of emissions involves the transition to renewable energies and the electrification of transport. Carbon removal technologies have gained space: carbon capture and storage (CCS) traps CO2 from industrial sources before it is released into the atmosphere, while direct air capture (DAC) works like a vacuum that removes carbon present in the air. Nature-based solutions—such as reforestation, restoration of native vegetation, and regenerative farming—complement fundamental approaches to ensuring the future of the planet.

Conclusion

The climate emergency is the greatest environmental, social, and economic challenge of this generation. Caused by human action over centuries of fossil-based industrialization, it expresses its effects in extreme weather events, affecting lives, economies, and ecosystems on a global scale.

While it's not possible to reverse the damage already caused, there's still a narrow window to limit future worst-case scenarios. This requires coordinated action at all scales: ambitious international agreements, national commitments aligned with science, responsible business initiatives based on scientific goals, and collective changes in habits. The sooner decisions that promote energy transition and climate adaptation are adopted, the greater will be the capacity to protect lives, preserve ecosystems, and guarantee a habitable future for future generations.

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