Cultural losses, related 
80 
See Annex 1: Glossary. 
81 
Governance: The structures, processes and actions through which private and public actors interact to address societal goals. This includes formal and informal institutions and 
the associated norms, rules, laws and procedures for deciding, managing, implementing and monitoring policies and measures at any geographic or political scale, from global 
to local. {WGII SPM Footnote 31}
to tangible and intangible heritage, threaten adaptive capacity and may 
result in irrevocable losses of sense of belonging, valued cultural practices, 
identity and home, particularly for Indigenous Peoples and those more 
directly reliant on the environment for subsistence (medium conﬁdence). 
For example, changes in snow cover, lake and river ice, and permafrost 
in many Arctic regions, are harming the livelihoods and cultural identity 
of Arctic residents including Indigenous populations (high conﬁdence). 
Infrastructure, including transportation, water, sanitation and energy 
systems have been compromised by extreme and slow-onset events, 
with resulting economic losses, disruptions of services and impacts 
to well-being (high conﬁdence). {WGII SPM B.1, WGII SPM B.1.2, 
WGII SPM.B.1.5, WGII SPM C.3.5, WGII TS.B.1.6; SROCC SPM A.7.1}
Across sectors and regions, the most vulnerable people and 
systems have been disproportionately affected by the impacts 
of climate change (high conﬁdence). LDCs and SIDS who have much 
lower per capita emissions (1.7 tCO2-eq, 4.6 tCO2-eq, respectively) than 
the global average (6.9 tCO2-eq) excluding CO2-LULUCF, also have high 
vulnerability to climatic hazards, with global hotspots of high human 
vulnerability observed in West-, Central- and East Africa, South Asia, 
Central and South America, SIDS and the Arctic (high conﬁdence). 
Regions and people with considerable development constraints have 
high vulnerability to climatic hazards (high conﬁdence).