While the media attention is focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, let us not forget the other crisis - on-going and never relenting climate change.
The IPCC report is also "a dire warning about the consequences of inaction," said Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC.
The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by 270 scientists who assessed over 34,000 studies, the report singles out Africa, Asia, Central and South America, small island nations and the Arctic as areas that are especially being impacted by heatwaves, droughts, floods and rising seas — weather extremes that are also driving biodiversity loss and mass mortalities in species such as trees and corals.
In Africa, for example, climate change has caused a 34% reduction in agricultural productivity since 1961, which is more than any other region, according to the report. Future warming is expected to shorten growing seasons and worsen water stress.
"Somalia has been the hardest hit by climate change in the globe," said Walter Mawere, the advocacy and communications coordinator for humanitarian NGO Care International in Somalia. He describes over 2,400 camps for the internally displaced in the country that are filling with families fleeing an ongoing drought, and previous extreme flooding. "The flooding has left 70% of the population without access to clean water," he explained.
Currently, however, more than 90% of climate funds go to mitigation rather than adaptation — which is "way below most estimates of the cost of adaptation needed today to manage the risks of climate change over the next ten to 20 years," said IPCC report lead author Mark New, who is director of the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town.
Meanwhile, only about 10 to 15% of available adaptation finance is made available to climate vulnerable local communities, according to New. Camilla Toulmin, Senior Fellow, International Institute for Environment & Development. The world's poorest people "contribute least to the problem of climate change" yet suffer the most devastating impacts, she added.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the average per capita carbon footprint in 2020 is around 0.1 tons per year compared to up to 15 tons in Australia, Canada and the US.
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