Category: News May 2021

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Sustainable Climate Migration Strategy Could Bolster Global Agricultural Production

31 May 2021 – by Ben St. Laurent

The latest research indicates that climate change could put a third of global food production at risk under high emission scenarios. According to this report, “[t]he most vulnerable areas are the ones at risk of leaving [Safe Climate Spaces] with low resilience to cope with the change, particularly South and Southeast Asia and Africa’s Sudano-Sahelian Zone. The Sudano-Sahelian Zone is a bioclimatic belt extending from the southern edge of the Sahara Desert into the Sub-Saharan savannahs of many African countries. In Ghana, worsening climatic conditions have already displaced many agricultural workers from the Sudano-Sahelian Zone in Ghana’s Upper West Region. The Water & Development Research Group at Aalto University indicated that these trends in agricultural migration, if planned for sustainably, could provide a solution to potential decreases in crop yields.

A study published in Nature Communications expands on the concept of ‘crop migration’ —  whereby agricultural workers migrate to more suitable areas for cultivation, which mitigates damaging impacts of climate change on crop yield. But when unplanned, climate displacement creates refugees prone to higher rates of unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. The researchers conclude that crop migration is substantially responsible for maintaining crop yields in the face of changes to the climate sustained over the past few decades. But they warn that “continued migration may incur substantial environmental costs and will depend on socio-economic and political factors in addition to land suitability and climate.”

Current projections indicate that climate change is likely to raise global temperatures above the 2°C goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, climate change will have differing effects on agriculture in various regions. Shifts in the winemaking industry illustrate this phenomenon clearly. While grape cultivation is expanding to include regions that have historically been too cold, vineyards in California and Australia have been devastated by wildfires which have displaced agricultural workers. While crop migration can help maintain current levels of agricultural production, the lack of supportive policy leads to unsustainable outcomes for migrants. Without such policies, current trends in crop migration could collapse, resulting in more climate refugees and reduced global agricultural production.

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Technology, Policy and Social Efforts Key For the Future of Climate Change Mitigation in India

28 May 2021 – by Atoosa Gitiforoz

India, one of the world’s fastest growing economies, has the third highest Greenhouse Gas Emission (GHG) emissions in the world behind the United States and China. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) reported that the air temperature had risen by 0.7 degrees Celsius 1901 – 2018, and the sea level 1 degrees Celsius between 1951-2015.

India’s rising air and sea temperatures and rapid urbanisation have had damaging domestic climate effects primarily impacting the poor, marginalised, indigenous and women. Studies show that up to 15% of maize crop areas are affected by flash droughts every year. Agricultural policies also exacerbate climate change; a reliance on thermal power (68% of GHG emissions) brings low quality, high yields. Crops such as rice and wheat in dry conditions worsen monsoon variations due to their high water consumption. Approximately 65% of India’s population live in rural areas, many of whom rely on climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fishing and livestock.

At the Paris Climate Summit [COP21], India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) pledged to reduce emission intensity by 33-35%, increase its share of non-fossil based fuel to 40% by 2030 and boost forest cover to absorb 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030.  Climate Action Tracker, a joint initiative by two climate research organizations based in Germany, state that India is the only major country whose climate mitigation efforts are in line with the goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

During the pandemic, India’s proportion of renewable energy rose from 17 per cent to 24 per cent while coal-fired power declined from 76 per cent to 66 per cent. Renewable energy in India has the potential to increase employment, improve air quality, water and land use and biodiversity. Scientific and financial incentives by the Indian government would help shift farmer reliance away from crops that worsen arid land.

Climate change resilience, alongside mitigation efforts, is key for countries where climate disasters are currently common. Carbon sequestration through the protection and nourishment of forests and urban green spaces improve drought, flash flood, landslide and coastal infrastructure resilience. It also lowers ambient temperatures. Access to water can be improved through the implementation of solar pumps, water sprinklers, drip irrigation, mulching and bed plantation – all of which are low cost relative to irrigation projects. Empowering local communities to take part in water harvesting and conservation ensures that efforts suit local ecologies too.

Whilst India is committing to climate change mitigation efforts for 2030, longer-term goals and on-going changes to technology, policy and social efforts must be made. A low carbon growth route with clear domestic climate policies and incentives is necessary if India is to hit net-zero targets.

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Court Rules That Germany’s Climate Change Law Violates Freedoms of Young People

26 May 2021 – by Evelyn Workman

Germany’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the country’s current climate protection measures are insufficient to protect future generations. It said that current climate change measures “violate the freedoms of the complainants, some of whom are still very young” because much of the action needed to reach the Paris climate deal targets is delayed until after 2030.

Germany’s Climate Protection Act was approved by the government in 2019 and under it Germany is obliged to cut greenhouse gas emission by 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. However, the judges of the Constitutional Court have deemed the regulations insufficient. “The regulations irreversibly postpone high emission reduction burdens until periods after 2030,” the court said. The court added that this is unconstitutional, and criticised the current law because it does not go into enough detail on how emissions will be reduced after 2031.

The judges said the government now has until the end of next year to revise its Climate Protection Act and ensure that goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are more urgently met. The government was quick to respond to the ruling, with the finance minister, Olaf Scholz, and the environment minister, Svenja Schulze, having “resolved to very quickly prepare a draft bill to advise the federal government.” The bill will amend the current Climate Protection Act to ensure it complies with the requirements set out by the Constitutional Court. Scholz has stated that he expects the bill to receive the approval of the entire federal government.

The ruling backed complaints from mostly young climate change activists and environmental groups between 2018 and 2020. One of the complainants, Luisa Neubauer, an activist from Fridays for Future, welcomed the ruling, saying: “This is huge. Climate protection is not nice to have; climate protection is our basic right and that’s official now. This is a huge win for the climate movement, it changes a lot.”

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Climate Displacement in Numbers Across Asia

24 May 2021 – by Hazal Yilmaz

In Dhaka, one of the most rainy cities of Bangladesh, hefty rainfall brings about flooding, water pollution and various diseases for a population of up to four million. Similar conditions are experienced by climate migrants that are forced to move due to the subpar conditions in the Ganges Delta.

According to the data, 10 million people, mostly living in Asia and the Pacific, were displaced in eight months due to natural disasters, especially those induced by climate change. Even once displaced, they still remain vulnerable to new threats.

According to the report published in 2018, erosions in Bangladesh and floods affecting Dhaka in the last 50 years have dragged thousands of people into poverty, forcing them to look elsewhere for resources. In the South Pacific, a storm caused by unusually hot waters in April 2020, posed similar challenges. In Afghanistan, 370,000 people had no choice but to leave their homes due to an extreme drought in 2018 and only the year following, 42,000 people were once again forced to migrate, but this time due to floods. The number of displaced persons in the Asia-Pacific Region, who make up 80% of the 20 million people displaced due to climate disasters, will very likely reach millions, and that even even if global warming is kept constant at 2 °C.

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Unprecedented Floods Displace Thousands in Kenya’s Rift Valley

22 May 2021 – by Ben St. Laurent

An article published in TIME by Aryn Baker offers a harrowing glimpse into how climate change is destroying the lives of residents in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Unprecedented precipitation over the past decade has already demolished homes, businesses, and lives – many of which are now entirely submerged by expanding lakes. According to Baker, thousands from this region have already been displaced by climate change. Evelyn Ajuang has been forced to relocate from her rural home on the edge of Lake Nakuru, to the nearby city just a few kilometres away. She spoke with TIME about the impact that relocation has had on her way of life, and the risks it poses for her future.

The residents of Rift Valley are urging their leaders to implement policies that better prepare cities for the emerging wave of climate migrants and prevent the crisis from developing further. According to Baker’s article, many major cities have already “launched programs to build climate resilience while making sure new arrivals have opportunities for both safe housing and fair employment.” Cities in Bangladesh have innovatively planned physical and social migration infrastructure in anticipation of the already increasing flow of migrants into more urban areas. But most cities in developing countries often lack the budget to build the infrastructure needed to accommodate the influx of migrants.

Climate migration experts — such as Alex Randall of the Climate and Migration Coalition (UK), Saleemul Huq of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (Dhaka), and Vittoria Zanuso of the Mayors Migration Council — insist that more international investment be directed towards climate adaptation in developing countries. Baker points out that urbanization can create opportunities for residents and foster economic development for countries, but it can also “create unprecedented mega-slums” if cities don’t plan properly or lack the resources to do so.

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NGOs File Third Party Interventions to ECHR in support of Duarte Agostinho’s Climate Case

20 May 2021 – by Ben St. Laurent

A landmark case brought by six young Portuguese citizens in November 2020 against 33 signatory states to the 2015 Paris Agreement continues to gain momentum at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In early May, the European Commissioner for Human Rights and a number of NGOs filed third party interventions to the Court in support of the applicants’ claim. Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and Others centers on the alleged violation of the applicants’ right to life (article 2) and right to respect for private and family life (article 8) as well as the prohibition of discrimination (article 14) due to the disproportional effects of climate change on younger generations. Due to the urgency of addressing climate change, the applicants won a legal battle confirming the court’s decision to fast-track the case.

The ECHR has constructed a notable body of case law which acknowledges the direct impact of certain environmental issues on human rights, and requires states to mitigate resulting violations of these rights. The ‘environmental admissibility criteria’ for the ECHR, established in Fadeyeva v Russia (2005), stipulates that interference on an applicant’s private life must be concrete and severe, a requirement which the applicants have already satisfied.

There is scientific and governmental consensus that climate change impacts human life, but a state’s legal obligation to mitigate the risk has yet to be established by the Court. By demonstrating causation between the defendant states’ greenhouse gas emissions and global warming induced heatwaves, the Duarte Agostinho case could set a new precedent for a state’s legal obligations to mitigate the effects of climate change. The third party interventions provide the Court with evidence linking national inaction on climate change to ensuing negative impacts on the applicant’s health and human rights.

The group of NGOs that recently filed supportive third party interventions includes Amnesty International, Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, Germanwatch, Notre Affaire à Tous, and 2Celsius. These organisations have provided evidence supporting the claim that current national contributions will not reduce emissions to a level that will prevent global temperatures from rising above 2°C, in accordance with commitments of the Paris Agreement. According to Wendel Trio, Director of CAN Europe, “Current efforts by our governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are highly insufficient as the world is still heading for a temperature rise around 2.5°C, alarmingly above the objectives of the Paris Agreement.” The court should appreciate the expert knowledge on this subject as it waits for government defenses which are due by May 27th.

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Study Reveals the Importance of Considering the Impact Climate Action Has on Global Poverty

18 May 2021 – by Evelyn Workman

It is well understood that less economically developed countries will be impacted harder by climate change compared to more developed countries. However, climate action to combat climate change could also worsen poverty by increasing prices for basic necessities, i.e. land-mitigation measures could drive up food prices. In addition, at the international level, a uniform carbon price would lead to higher relative policy costs for developing countries.

A new study has examined the ways in which climate policies could also help to reduce extreme poverty, rather than exacerbate it. The study’s researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany found that if socioeconomic efforts to reduce global poverty are continued at the current rate, then 350 million people globally will remain in poverty by 2030, with a large majority of them in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The study predicts that ambitious climate policies introduced to meet the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement could push this number up by 50 million. However, the authors stress that if ‘progressive redistribution’ is considered in climate policies, this could instead lead to a small reduction in global poverty by about 6 million people. ‘Progressive redistribution’ means that countries would redistribute revenues from carbon tax back to all their citizens implemented as an equal-per-capita climate dividend.

However, despite this overall decrease in global poverty, the researcher calculated that this ‘progressive redistribution’ strategy could result in sub-Saharan Africa becoming poorer, with 10 million more people in this region being pushed into extreme poverty. To counteract this negative consequence to sub-Saharan African countries, the authors suggest the implementation of an international finance scheme whereby developed countries redistribute 5% of their carbon carbon revenues to sub-Saharan countries. This scheme could result in 30 million less people in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, and 45 million less people globally in extreme poverty, by 2030, compared to the current trends.

This research highlights the importance of considering other sustainable development goals (i.e. eradicating extreme poverty) when undertaking climate action, in order to achieve climate change mitigation in a fair and equitable way for all people.

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Gender Equality Key to Mitigate Climate Change

17 May 2021 – by Atoosa Gitiforoz

The Nature Climate Change journal released an article on Thursday 6th May 21, detailing findings that demonstrate the importance of gender equality in mitigating climate change. Collated evidence from eighteen sources show how conservation, natural resource management, the protection of Indigenous peoples’ tenure rights and forest-dependent communities can only be achieved with the participation of women in decision-making processes on both a local and governmental level.

The article points to human rights abuses and the lack of women’s involvement in climate programmes as driving factors in forest destruction and the failure of decision makers to address climate related issues that primarily damage the lives of women and Indigenous peoples: ‘In the Brazilian Amazon, for example, deforestation on lands securely held by Indigenous peoples was, on average, 150% lower than in other comparable areas.’

Plantation companies have not been held accountable by governments for causing damage to property, food and a healthy environment – which all disproportionately affect women. Rural women are among the least likely to be included in decision-making about land and forest management, yet ‘women are also on the frontlines protecting forests from destruction’.

Differences in gender roles across many communities impacted by climate change has meant that women often use forest products to support their families as opposed to exploiting them commercially. However, conservation and natural resource management have been slow to include women in their programmes. Involving more women in conservation projects in communities, where conservation is in women’s interests due to gender roles, is likely to lead to more sustainable practices. When governments fail to include women, they are at greater risk of being killed, falling victim to gender-based violence and/or be at the receiving end of legal harassment.

For example, ‘women are more likely to plant trees in their gardens to reduce the distance they walk to fetch firewood or to protect the forests, serving as an important food or medicinal source.’ Understanding and considering gender roles by including both men and women as stakeholders in climate change mitigation efforts, ensures that women partake in decision-making processes that directly impact their rights.

Evidence is presented in this article demonstrating that the inclusion of women in forest management groups brings positive outcomes for both government and conservation efforts. The article urges governments to incorporate this evidence within climate action plans, adapt policies that improve both the rights of women and forest-dependent communities, and bringing tenure security for local communities – in particular women.

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Early Indicators Forecast Another Summer of Extreme Wildfires Across the Western United States

15 May 2021 – by Ben St. Laurent

Meteorologists and wildfire experts have reported early indicators of another unprecedented season of wildfires in the western United States. Continuous monitoring from NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) shows that nearly half of the U.S. is experiencing drought and the most extreme conditions are concentrated in the Southwest and Pacific. According to National Weather Service data, drought is expected to persist and expand over the region, while temperatures remain above average this summer. AccuWeather wildfire forecasts classify parts of 18 states at high risk of wildfires, nine of which are currently at an extreme risk. Data from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) determined that wildfires have already swept through over a quarter million acres by early May 2021 – double what they had by this time last year.

What this means for local residents and businesses, still reeling from the effects of the pandemic, is alarming. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), up to 280,000 residents of the western U.S. had been displaced in the first two weeks of September 2020. Yearly evacuation and displacement will likely contribute to domestic climate migration out of the western U.S. The Insurance Information Institute reported that the wildfires in 2020 burned 10 million acres, destroyed 10,500 structures, and incurred billions of dollars in damages. As western states prepare for another year of extreme wildfires, NPR describes how businesses are still rebuilding from last year’s fires – and also the remaining fire damage from years ago. Jeff Smith, owner and founder of Napa Valley’s fire-damaged Hourglass Winery, spoke to NPR about preventative measures residents have begun to take, including using fire resistant building materials and creating defensible space on private property.

In a press conference in early April, Governor Gavin Newsom, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, and Cal Fire Director Thom Porter addressed the need to plan ahead for the 2021 fire season. Crowfoot underscored the reality that “we are not going to respond our way out of this crisis”, citing increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation resulting from climate change. The recent increase in the length and severity of wildfires across the American West is a testament to the destruction of climate change and the immediate impact it has on the lives of residents. Towards the effort to invest in proactive wildfire protection, Governor Newsom announced the allocation of $536 million in fire prevention funding, which follows the $80.74 million in emergency funds designated in March to add 1,399 firefighters to the Cal Fire crew this year.

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Air Pollution From Nearly All Polluting Sources Disproportionately Affects People of Colour Across the U.S.

13 May 2021 – by Evelyn Workman

Health problems from exposure to air pollution have long been reported in communities of colour across the U.S. A growing body of data is continuing to back up these reports by showing that Asian, Black and Hispanic people are exposed to higher concentrations of air pollutants on average than their white counterparts. A recent study has found that this air pollution exposure disparity faced by people of colour (POC) exists across states, in both rural and urban communities, across income levels, and is true regardless of the type of pollution.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, focuses on ambient fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5), which is the largest environmental cause of human mortality, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, and is responsible for 85,000 to 200,000 excess deaths per year in the United States. PM2.5 consists of fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less. This pollution source is particularly dangerous as the particles are small enough to travel deep into the respiratory tract and reach the lungs, which can consequently lead to numerous health problems, including bronchitis, reduced lung function and increased mortality from lung cancer and heart disease.

This latest study is the first of its kind to track all pollutant source types in the 2014 EPA National Emissions Inventory (over 5000 individual pollutant types). The researchers grouped these pollutants into 14 broad types based on source. These groups included industrial, commercial cooking, and coal electric generation.

This study will enable important discussions on mitigation measures which can be taken to tackle high levels of pollution faced by communities of colour. For example, as the study has highlighted that numerous types of pollution are responsible for this disparity in pollution exposure faced by POC, mitigation efforts taken at the local level may be more effective than tackling the problem on a nationwide level, as different sources of pollution may affect different neighbourhoods across the country.