Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Equality & Governance; Hits: 122

The climate emergency really is a new type of crisis – consider the ‘triple inequality’ at the heart of it. Global conferences such as at the Cop28 may seem like staid and ritualistic affairs. But they matter! Guardian Adam Tooze 23 Nov, 2023 Stare at a climate map of the world that we expect to inhabit 50 years from now and you see a band of extreme heat encircling the planet’s midriff. Climate modelling from 2020 suggests that within half a century about 30% of the world’s projected population – unless they are forced to move – will live in places with an average temperature above 29C. This is unbearably hot. Currently, no more than 1% of Earth’s land surface is this hot, and those are mainly uninhabited parts of the Sahara.

The scenario is as dramatic as it is because the regions of the world affected most severely by global heating – above all, sub-Saharan Africa – are those expected to experience the most rapid population growth in coming decades. But despite this population growth, they are also the regions that, on current trends, will contribute least to the emissions that drive the climate disaster. So extreme is inequality that the lowest-earning 50% of the world population – 4 billion people – account for as little as 12% of total emissions. And those at the very bottom of the pile barely register at all. Mali’s per capita C02 emissions are about one-seventy-fifth of those in the US. Even if the lowest-earning third of the global population – more than 2.6 billion people – were to raise themselves above the $3.2-a-day poverty line, it would increase total emissions by a mere 5% – that is, one-third of the emissions of the richest 1%.

Half the world’s population, led by the top 10% of the income distribution – and, above all, by the global elite – drive a globe-spanning productive system that destabilises the environment for everyone. The worst effects are suffered by the poorest, and in the coming decades the impact will become progressively more extreme. And yet their poverty means they are virtually powerless to protect themselves. This is the triple inequality that defines the climate global equation: the disparity in responsibility for producing the problem; the disparity in experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis; and the disparity in the available resources for mitigation and adaptation. Not everyone in the danger zone of climate breakdown is poor and powerless. The American south-west has the resources to help itself. India is a capable state. But global heating will pose huge distributional problems. How will climate refugees be resettled? How will the economy adapt? For fragile states such as Iraq, it may prove too much. The risk is that they will tip from just about coping into outright collapse, failing to provide water and the electricity for cooling – the bare essentials for survival in extreme heat. In Iraq this summer, thousands of people huddled in their air-conditioned cars, running their engines for hours just to survive heat spikes that exceeded 50C.

You might say, plus ça change. The poor suffer and the rich prosper. But the consequences of the climate triple inequality are radical and new. Rich countries have long traded on unequal terms with the poor. During the era of colonialism, they plundered raw materials and enslaved tens of millions. For two generations after decolonisation, economic growth largely bypassed what was then known as the third world......shocking! read on https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2023/nov/23/climate-emergency-crisis-conference-cop-28

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Equality & Governance; Hits: 130

Gender equality goals under threat in climate crisis-hit countries, says UN. Climate-related disasters disproportionately affect women and girls as reproductive services crumble and gender-based violence rises.Guardian Weranika Strzyzynska Fri 1 Dec 2023 The climate crisis threatens the chances of gender equality being achieved in the countries most vulnerable to global heating, the UN has said. The UN’s reproductive and maternal health agency, released data showing that the 14 countries most at risk from the effects of the climate crisis are also those where women and girls are more likely to die in childbirth, marry early, experience gender-based violence or be displaced by disaster.

“The climate crisis affects everybody but there are subgroups least able to adapt,” said Angela Baschieri, UNFPA’s technical lead on climate action. “It puts pressure on the most impoverished and further drives existing inequality.” Disasters, such as floods or cyclones, disproportionately affect women by disrupting sexual and reproductive health services, Baschieri said, pointing to South Sudan, which has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world – 1,223 deaths for every 100,000 live births – and is among the countries most affected by global heating. Health systems that can withstand climate shocks and continue providing sexual and reproductive healthcare are vital for the wellbeing of women and girls, she added. However, only a third of national climate action plans mention them. As well as decreasing women’s access to medical care, disasters can exacerbate gender-based violence. “We have seen an increase in gender-based violence during the recent floods in Pakistan and the droughts in Uganda,” said Bridget Burns, the director of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (Wedo)......read on https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/01/gender-equality-goals-under-threat-in-climate-crisis-hit-countries-says-un

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Equality & Governance; Hits: 111

Why loss and damage funds are key to climate justice for developing countries at Cop28 Nations contributing least to greenhouse gas emissions are least equipped to deal with climate-related destruction.Guardian Guardian Nina LakhaniWed 29 Nov 2023 It has been another catastrophic climate year, with supercharged extreme weather events striking every corner of the globe: the deadliest-ever Mediterranean cyclone dropping unprecedented rainfall in Libya, severe drought threatening Indigenous communities and ecosystems in the Amazon, and a surge in heat deaths in Phoenix, Arizona. Record-breaking global temperatures have played a major role in this summer’s epic ocean storms, wildfires, flooding and droughts, so it is a perverse reality that the countries and communities which have contributed least to the greenhouse gases warming the planet are suffering the most – and are least equipped to cope with the escalating death and destruction.

What is loss and damage? ........Loss and damage refers to the irreversible costs of extreme weather and slow-onset disasters such as sea level rise, ocean acidification and melting glaciers caused by global heating. It is about holding the biggest fossil fuel polluters liable for the pain and suffering already caused by climate breakdown. Climate finance for loss and damage is considered separately, and in addition to, securing funds for mitigation and adaptation to help developing nations prepare for what is coming. Costs can be both economic – resulting from lost lives, livelihoods, infrastructure, homes and territory – and non-economic and harder to quantify, such as lost culture, identity, biodiversity and sovereignty, among others. The demand for loss and damage funds has become a central tenet in demands for climate justice. In other words, people are demanding climate action that addresses the inequities behind the cause and effect of the climate breakdown.

Where are we? For more than 30 years, developed rich countries have used an array of tactics to block loss and damage funding to the most affected – and least responsible – nations. Finally, last year at the Cop27 summit in Egypt, there was a formal agreement to establish a new, broad fund and funding arrangements. The victory was thanks in large part to the Egyptian Cop27 presidency and unwavering pressure from the G77 block of developing countries (plus China) led by Pakistan, where unprecedented floods had left a third of the country under water. But agreeing to set up the fund was just the first step.

What’s happened since Cop27?......A transitional committee was tasked with creating a set of recommendations about what the loss and damage fund should look like and how it will function. After a year of testy negotiations in which developed nations sought to minimise their contributions while maximising control over who benefits, both rich and poor nations were forced to make major compromises. For instance, the final package of recommendations for countries to consider at Cop28 includes the World Bank temporarily hosting the new fund – something which developing countries were steadfastly against. In the end, the US, EU and other rich nations got their way, but only after developing countries secured crucial conditions such as direct access for countries, communities and Indigenous people and a level of transparency that the World Bank is unaccustomed to. For more than 30 years, developed rich countries have used an array of tactics to block loss and damage funding to the most affected – and least responsible – nations. Finally, last year at the Cop27 summit in Egypt, there was a formal agreement to establish a new, broad fund and funding arrangements. The victory was thanks in large part to the Egyptian Cop27 presidency and unwavering pressure from the G77 block of developing countries (plus China) led by Pakistan, where unprecedented floods had left a third of the country under water. But agreeing to set up the fund was just the first step.

Will there be new money for loss and damage?........The transition committee’s recommendations do not include mention of scale or startup funding, so it has yet to be decided how much money will be available. It’s also unclear who will contribute how much and when, but the fund’s focus will be on “priority gaps”. In other words, loss and damage money should complement and link into existing funding arrangements like humanitarian aid and the Green Climate Fund. It should be available as grants not loans, and therefore help break the climate-debt nexus.....read on https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/29/why-loss-and-damage-funds-are-key-to-climate-justice-for-developing-countries-at-cop28

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Equality & Governance; Hits: 93

People of colour have been shut out of the climate debate. Social justice is the key to a greener world. Guardian Julian Agyeman Thu 6 Oct 2022 Environmental issues in low-income areas have long been ignored by activists who fail to grasp the importance of equity. “Equity is not an issue for us. We’re here to save the world.” From 1986 to 1990, I worked in an inner London borough as an environmental policy adviser. I worked on raising awareness of local environmental issues, paying special attention to those affecting the borough’s lower-income residents. There were very few jobs such as this in local government, and I was the only Black person employed in one. Unlike the US, in Britain there was no policy discourse or social movement tackling environmental or climate justice at that time. Yet it was obvious to me through my work, and to a growing number of other activists of colour, that the poorest residents in urban Britain, many of whom were Black and Brown, lived in the most deprived areas in terms of proximity to large polluting roads, poor or unaffordable housing stock, social exclusion, lack of educational and economic opportunity, disinvestment and lack of green and play spaces.

In response to this exclusion, a group of activists of colour, including Ingrid Pollard, Judy Ling Wong, Roland de la Mothe, Vijay Krishnarayan, Swantee Toocaram and I founded the Black Environment Network (BEN) in 1988 to increase activism, reframe environmental and sustainability agendas and get more people of colour into environmental jobs. We had read the landmark report Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States (United Church of Christ, Commission for Racial Justice 1987) which had contributed significantly to the development of public awareness in the US of “environmental racism”: the intentional and disproportionate loading of environmental “bads” such as pollution and toxic waste on communities of colour, and the lack of access to environmental “goods”, such as parks and open spaces. The cry for a “justice” framing of environmental and sustainability issues was growing louder in the US, culminating in President Bill Clinton’s 1994 executive order called Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations. However, in recent years research has shown that the issue of environmental quality is inextricably linked to that of equity and human equality at all geographic scales. Wherever in the world environmental despoliation and degradation is happening, it is almost always linked to questions of social justice, human rights, racism, equity and people’s quality of life in its widest sense.

From recent floods in Pakistan to excessive heat in formerly redlined US neighbourhoods, from pollution-related deaths such as Ella Kissi-Debrah who lived within 30 metres of London’s South Circular Road, to the toxic plight of the copper pickers at Agbogbloshie, the world’s largest e-waste dump in Accra, Ghana, the poorest are bearing the brunt of environmental “bads”, and in the case of climate “bads”, they are the least responsible for carbon production. Environmental injustice was now a civil rights issue. ....read on https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/06/colour-climate-social-justice-green-environmental

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Equality & Governance; Hits: 188

UNDP - What is climate justice and why does it matter? Climate justice means putting equity and human rights at the core of decision-making and action on climate change. The concept has been widely used to refer to the unequal historical responsibility that countries and communities bear in relation to the climate crisis. It suggests that the countries, industries, businesses, and people that have become wealthy from emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases have a responsibility to help those affected by climate change, particularly the most vulnerable countries and communities, who often are the ones that have contributed the least to the crisis. There are many facets to climate justice. Below, we provide an overview of a few of them.

Structural inequalities: Even within the same country, the impacts of climate change may be felt unevenly due to structural inequalities based on race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Women are more severely affected by climate change impacts, because they have access to fewer resources to adapt and cope with abrupt changes. People with disabilities are at increased risk of the adverse impacts of climate change, including threats to their health, food security, access to water energy, and sanitation, and livelihoods, particularly in developing countries. Indigenous Peoples, who protect 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity, are facing increasing threats and risks to their lives, livelihoods, and traditional knowledge.
Socioeconomic inequalities: The impacts of climate change and the resources needed to address climate change impacts are distributed unequally around the world. Low-income countries, and vulnerable populations within those countries, are more susceptible to climate-induced loss and damage. Globally, the 10 percent of households with the highest per capita emissions contribute 34–45 percent of global household greenhouse gas emissions, while the bottom 50 percent contribute 13–15 percent.
Intergenerational inequity: Children and young people today have not contributed to the climate crisis in a significant way but will bear the full force of climate change impacts as they advance through life. Because their human rights are threatened by the decisions of previous generations, their rights must be centred in all climate decision-making and action.

Why is climate justice important? Climate change is a human rights issue. All people should have the agency to live life with dignity. However, the climate crisis is causing loss of lives, livelihoods, language, and culture, putting many at risk of food and water shortages, and triggering displacement and conflict. The climate crisis impedes the right to good health as well. Rising temperatures, increased frequency of extreme weather events, polluted air and water contribute to significant health impacts, including heat stress, disease outbreaks, malnutrition, and trauma from having lived through disasters. The impacts are more severe for vulnerable populations who have limited means to adapt to climate change impacts. Between 2010 and 2020, human mortality from floods, droughts, and storms was 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions, compared to regions with very low vulnerability.

The climate crisis also has impacts on a country’s education system. When temperatures are too high or extreme weather events hit, for example, it can damage infrastructure and damage educational institutions, threaten the ability of parents to send their children to school, impacting the futures of young generations.

Climate justice is also an important aspect of j ust transition toward a sustainable future. Local communities, especially informal workers and other vulnerable and marginalized populations can be harmed in this transition if not protected and consulted. For example, there are increasing concerns around human rights violations related to mining for minerals needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles. Currently, those who have least contributed to the climate crisis are being disproportionately affected by it. Climate justice suggests that the responsibilities in addressing climate change should be divided according to who is contributing most to the problem, while addressing systemic, socioeconomic, and intergenerational inequalities.....read on https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/climate-change-matter-justice-heres-why#:~:text=What%20is%20climate%20justice%20and,relation%20to%20the%20climate%20crisis.

‘Triple Inequality’- The Climate Emergency really is a New type of Crisis.

The Climate Crisis affects Everybody but mostly Impoverished and Further Drives Existing Inequality.

Why Loss and Damage Funds are key to Climate Justice for Developing Countries

People of Colour have been Shut Out of the Climate Debate. Social Justice is the Key to a Greener World.

Climate Justice means putting Equity and Human Rights at the Core of Decision-making and Action on Climate Change.

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