RK Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, asserts in a Forbes India article that, "There is an intimate link between efforts to achieve sustainable development and those required to meet the climate change challenge. Sustainable development can reduce vulnerability to climate change, and climate change could impede nations' abilities to achieve sustainable development pathways."

Citing the special report on ‘Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation,’ he warns about the interaction of climate change at all scales with other trends in global environmental and natural resource concerns, including water, soil and air pollution, health hazards, disaster risk and deforestation, and calls for integrated mitigation and adaptation measures. "Sustainable development and reducing vulnerability to climate change are not two sides of the same coin, but complementary," summarizes the article