Category: Current Affairs Regions

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.

17 May 2021 – by Atoosa Gitiforoz

The Nature Climate Change journal released an article on Thursday 6^th 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.

11 May 2021 – by Atoosa Gitiforoz

A recently published study by the Nature journal shows that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius ‘would halve the land ice contribution to twenty-first-century sea level rise’. The world currently, is on track to warm three degrees Celsius by 2100.

This study projects that reducing greenhouse emissions in line with pledges made under the Paris Agreement would have almost halved land ice contribution to sea level in 2100. This halving is demonstrated across three ice sources:

The ice sheet mass loss in Greenland would reduce by 70%, glacier mass losses would roughly halve and Antarctica would see little difference between different emissions scenarios, ‘owing to uncertainties in the competing processes of snowfall accumulation and ice loss.’

The Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest ice land and its melting is accelerating. Models are used to project the contribution of land ice to sea-level rise, but they cannot explore all outcomes due to uncertain projections, and use up large amounts of computational power. In the most extreme ice sheet loss scenario, Antarctic loss may be up to five times higher – increasing the median sea level to 42cm under current pledges.

Rises in sea level strongly influences the migration of people; 1 billion people may become climate refugees by 2050, largely due to melting ice caps, sea level rises, rising temperatures, drought and catastrophic effects of climate change. A recent study by Harvard University states that West Antarctic ice sheet melting may cause sea levels to rise higher than previously thought. New predictions say that in the case of complete ice sheet collapse, sea levels would rise by an additional 30% (within the next 1,000 years) than previous estimates.

Whilst estimating the number of climate migrants is difficult due to future changes in carbon emissions and coastal-adaptation choices, climate disasters currently do influence migration. Rising sea levels will inevitably lead to land becoming uninhabitable and hence increased displacement. The study published by Nature pointing to a global warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius having such as substantial impact on land ice contribution to sea levels, highlights how much damage and suffering can be averted through on-going efforts at mitigating climate change.