Category: Current Affairs

Posted on

Gender, Climate Change, and Migration: Promising Policy and Programmatic Practice in addressing Linkages from a Gender Equality and a Women’s Leadership Perspective

6 April 2021 – by Atoosa Gitiforoz

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Gender and Disaster Network, and, the Arab Water Council, organised a webinar: ‘Gender, Climate Change, and Migration: Promising Policy and Programmatic Practice in addressing Linkages from a Gender Equality and a Women’s Leadership Perspective.’

The event took place on March 23, 2021, gathering NGOs, CSOs and CBOs, think tanks, academic bodies, the private sector as well as regional and national stakeholders.  At the event, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) directed participants to the Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments platform to submit their gender-related commitments and promote their work.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, adopted at the Third UN World Conference in Sendai, Japan, on March 18, 2015 – with a roadmap to reduce disaster losses by 2030, holds a particular focus on women’s capacity development, gender-disaggregated data and gender equality across policy and planning initiatives. It ‘is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda, with seven targets and four priorities for action.’

One of four priorities (Priority 4) in the current Sendai Framework: ‘Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to «Build Back Better» in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.’, points to women and persons with disabilities to be public leaders in reconstruction and response phases to climate disasters. This follows from findings so far that women, children and people in vulnerable situations are disproportionately affected by climate disasters. Hence it is vital that women participate in implementing gender-sensitive disaster risk reduction policies and initiatives.

In practice, the Sendai Framework recommends investment into capacity development and maintenance into grassroots organisations and women’s groups that are knowledgeable of local needs and function as important community mobilizers. The Sendai Framework remains open to submissions of commitments for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Posted on

The Causes and Effects of the Australian Flood Disaster

5 April 2021 – by Hazal Yilmaz

The effects of the flood disaster that followed the heavy rainfall in Australia last week are still continuing in the region. In the worst flood disaster in 60 years, 18.000 people were evacuated and 3 deaths were recorded. The economy is adversely affected by the damage to property and the disruption of coal exports.

Australia’s wildlife and livestock are also one of the parties most affected by this flood. Animals, reptiles and spiders, who were trying to take refuge in the surrounding houses and struggling to survive, were tried to be rescued by the locals and officials.

Successive fire and flood disasters make us question the impact of global warming on these natural phenomena. Scientists think that Australia’s tides between excess drought and excess rain will be the new reality. Although the authorities are careful in linking the cause of extreme rainfall to climate change, various reports and studies have suggested that the warming of Australia increased the intensity of the rainfall. Although global warming and changes in the structure of the atmosphere are not the only factors, Australia’s current warming of 1.4C increases the moisture holding capacity of the atmosphere and worsens the situation.

Posted on

What is the SDG Global Festival of Action?

4 April 2021 – by Hazal Yilmaz

The SDG Global Festival of Action was held for the fifth time from the 25-26 March 2021 with the aim of accelerating the process towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

For two days, at what was this time a virtual event, the UN brought together individuals and organizations in dynamic and interactive sessions under the objectives of SDG Action Campaign. Emphasizing the importance of individual actions, solidarity and cooperation in achieving sustainable development goals, participants were encouraged to think on how we can achieve transformative change, both socially and economically.

UN Climate Change, which gives wing to innovative projects in the direction of the climate action and bring stakeholders together, is considering increasing the innovation potential with “The UN Climate Change Innovation Hub”. The Hub aims to create an opportunity of cooperation for climate actors, who will try to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5C with various innovations. We will be able to follow the Hub’s work closely after it goes into operation together with the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in November 2021.

Posted on

The Biden Administration on Climate Migration

4 April 2021 – by Atoosa Gitiforoz

The Biden Administration has marked international climate action as a key driver of his foreign policy goals. A climate change summit, organised by Biden, is to take place on the 22nd and 23rd April 2021, where 40 world leaders will discuss the urgency and economics of stronger climate action.

In February 2021, President Biden signed an ‘Executive Order on Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs to Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration’. The report includes the discussion of international security implications of climate migration, protection and resettlement options, strategies to identify climate migrants and how these findings impact US foreign assistance related to climate change emergencies, as well as partnership opportunities with other countries, international bodies and NGOs.

A policy brief has since been launched in March, by the Duke Centre for International Development (DCID), which specifically looks at factors driving migration from Honduras to the U.S. border. In the report, food insecurity linked to climate change was one of the key factors in increased migration from Honduras to the U.S in recent years. The report suggests investments to improve agricultural resilience to rainfall to improve food security, as a long-term plan.

A study by The Washington Postin 2019 looked at American public opinion towards climate migrants, compared to economic migrants and refugees. The study also looked at whether stances on climate migration correlated with positions about climate change mitigation efforts. The respondents by largely favoured climate migrants over economic migrants, and refugees over climate migrants. The findings also showed that most Americans don’t see climate change mitigation and climate migration as related. In other words, news about climate migration did not make respondents more likely to support climate change mitigation efforts more broadly.

President Biden’s efforts at reorganising the US migration system, callings for reports on climate-change mitigation and foreign policy efforts to push for stronger climate action, are promising. There are still significant gaps in the support line for climate migrants arriving in the US; for example, the US government does not have policies designed to support the mental health needs of climate change migrants. Recent analyses on the issue of US climate migration policy also points to the problem of treating climate migration as an independent issue. Studies show the strong correlation between migration caused by climate change and higher levels of violence leading to an increase in migrant flow. Recommendations by studies related to Honduras- US migration include: ‘A multi-track approach to address both agricultural resilience and the difficult knot of violence, governance, and corruption has the best chance of reducing the need of Hondurans to migrate.’

Posted on

An Uncertain Future for Migrant Farmers in Ghana

1 April 2021 – by Benjamin St. Laurent

A recent study has examined the plight of rural migrant farmers in Ghana who continue to face the realities of climate change. For decades, Ghanaian farmers have left their homes in the Upper West Region for the prospect of better agricultural conditions in the Brong-Ahafo Region. They have made this journey hundreds of miles south due to worsening soil conditions and declining rainfall volume and frequency which has led to a lack of food security. The 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC predicts, with high confidence, that mean precipitation will decline in mid-latitude subtropical dry regions such as Ghana’s Northern semi-arid climate.

The Brong-Ahafo Region is a hub for agricultural production in Ghana and has historically provided migrants with employment opportunities. But climate change has led to declining agricultural conditions in this region as well. As in many developing countries, agriculture has shifted from staple crops to cash crops that can be exported, such as Cocoa. According to the MIT Observatory of Economic Complexity, between 2014 and 2019 Cocoa exports declined 20.5% ($664M USD) while precious metal, gem, and mineral exports increased significantly.

Baada, Baruah, and Luginaah discussed the realities these migrant farmers faced in Brong Ahafo through interviews and focus group discussions and reported that “premigration hopes of improving their lives in the middle-belt had not been matched by the postmigration realities”. Migrant farmers, especially women, often lack access to farming resources, land, and social capital when they arrive. While seemingly bleak, the authors of this study identify a number of potential solutions including providing migrants with equitable access to land tenure and farming resources, as well as creating alternative employment opportunities in the Upper West Region, where farming has already become increasingly difficult.

Sources

Baada, J., Baruah, B., & Luginaah, I. (2020). Looming crisis – changing climatic conditions in Ghana’s breadbasket: the experiences of agrarian migrants. Development In Practice, 1-14. doi: 10.1080/09614524.2020.1854184 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09614524.2020.1854184

IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, p. 60. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/

OEC. (2021). Ghana (GHA) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners. Retrieved 30 March 2021, from https://oec.world/en/profile/country/gha/

Baada, J., Baruah, B., & Luginaah, I. (2021). Climate change is affecting agrarian migrant livelihoods in Ghana. This is how. Retrieved 29 March 2021, from https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-affecting-agrarian-migrant-livelihoods-in-ghana-this-is-how-156212

Posted on

Intensification of Heatwaves in the Middle East and North Africa Could be a Significant Driver of Migration From the Region

30 March 2021 – by Evelyn Workman

Extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, will become increasingly common in the future, as our climate continues to warm. More and more scientific research is being carried in this field, due to the potential devastating consequences to humans as a result of more frequent and more severe heatwaves. One recently published paper within this field has found that, unless greenhouse gas emissions are significantly curbed, life-threatening and extreme heatwaves will be observed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and could be a significant driver for mass migration to cooler northern regions in the future.

The study, “Business-as-usual will lead to super and ultra-extreme heatwaves in the Middle East and North Africa” published in the journal npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, used a multi-model ensemble of climate projections, and then predicted future heatwaves and characterised them with the Heat Wave Magnitude Index. The results indicate that, under a business-as-usual pathway (greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at present day rates) unprecedented super- and ultra-extreme heatwaves will develop in MENA in the second half of this century. The study predicts the events will involve temperatures exceeding 56 °C and will last for several weeks at a time, leading to life-threatening conditions for humans. In addition, by the end of the century, about half of the MENA population could be exposed to these ultra-extreme heatwaves on an annual basis. This potential intensification of heatwaves in MENA could lead to increased migration from the region to cooler, more northern places. 

The authors suggest that immediate and drastic action on climate change, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, are necessary to prevent such extreme heatwave events from occurring. In addition, they also suggest that cities in the area will have to develop adaptation solutions to cope with the greater prevalence and severity of heatwaves in the area. 

Sources

George Zittis, Panos Hadjinicolaou, Mansour Almazroui, Edoardo Bucchignani, Fatima Driouech, Khalid El Rhaz, Levent Kurnaz, Grigory Nikulin, Athanasios Ntoumos, Tugba Ozturk, Yiannis Proestos, Georgiy Stenchikov, Rashyd Zaaboul, Jos Lelieveld. Business-as-usual will lead to super and ultra-extreme heatwaves in the Middle East and North Africa. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 2021; 4 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41612-021-00178-7

Posted on

The Climate Crisis Has Been a Driving Force of Central American Migration to the USA

29 March 2021 – by Evelyn Workman

Migration north to the USA from Central America has been driven over the past by many factors including government corruption, high levels of poverty, and violence. However, over the past few months, another factor has caused an increase in the number of people migrating north: hurricanes. 

In November 2020, two hurricanes made landfall within two weeks, causing devastation across Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. Hurricanes Eta and Iota brought flash flooding and landslides to these regions, and resulted in more than 200 deaths and another 5.3 million in need of assistance, according to estimates by Unicef. The Covid-19 pandemic had already left these regions in economic downturn, and the destruction the hurricanes have brought have only exacerbated issues created by the pandemic. Severe damage has been caused to homes and hospitals, resulting in increasing the transmission of COVID-19.

Recovery in these regions has been slow since the hurricanes, living conditions and access to services and income have declined. More people have been pushed into poverty and children are likely to become malnourished, as agricultural communities have been hit and damaged by the storms. These factors are helping push migrants out of their home countries, and a change of administration in the US has made the move north more attractive, due to Biden’s more humane approach to migration. We can expect to see cases like these becoming more frequent in the future, as climate change will make extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, more commonplace and more intense. 

Sources

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/3/22/22335816/border-crisis-migrant-hurricane-eta-iota

https://aldianews.com/articles/politics/climate-crisis-one-driving-forces-central-american-migration-heres-how/63631