Dealing with Disaster?

 Low-income countries are struggling to protect themselves against climate change, officials and experts have told the BBC. Organisations representing 90 countries say that their plans to prevent damage have already been outpaced by climate-induced disasters, which are intensifying and happening more regularly.

"Our existing plans are not enough to protect our people," says Sonam Wangdi, chair of the UN's Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group on climate change.

Last year, the Caribbean had a record-breaking 30 tropical storms - including six major hurricanes. The World Meteorological Organisation says the region is still recovering. On islands like Antigua and Barbuda, experts say that many buildings have been unable to withstand the intense winds these storms have brought.

"We used to see category four hurricanes, so that's what we have prepared for with our adaptation plans, but now we are being hit by category five hurricanes," says Diann Black Layner, chief climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States. "Category five hurricanes bring winds as strong as 180 miles per hour which the roofs cannot withstand because it creates stronger pressure inside our houses," she said.

In Uganda, communities in the Rwenzori region have been trying to protect themselves from landslides and floods by digging trenches and planting trees, helping to prevent soil erosion.

"The rains have become so intense that we have seen huge, sudden floods sweeping away these defences," said Jackson Muhindo, a local climate change and resilience coordinator for Oxfam." As a result, there have been multiple landslides on mountain slopes which have buried settlements and farms," he adds. "Adaptation works based on soil conservation are proving to be increasingly useless in the wake of these extreme weather events."

Several Pacific Island countries were hit by three cyclones between the middle of 2020 and January 2021.

"After those three cyclones, communities in the northern part of our country have seen the sea walls built as part of their adaptation plans crumbling," says Vani Catanasiga, head of the Fiji Council of Social Services. "The water and the wind repeatedly battering the settlements..." 

A study by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED),  that 46 of the world's least-developed countries don't have the financial means to "climate proof" themselves. The IIED says these countries need at least $40bn (£28.8bn; €33.8bn) a year for their adaptation plans. But between 2014-18, just $5.9 billion of adaptation finance was received.

Climate change: Low-income countries 'can't keep up' with impacts - BBC News