We’ve reached a “climate emergency.”
That’s the warning from António Guterres, UN secretary-general, following this month’s “Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change” report released ahead of this week’s Earth Day.
These findings of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate harmful carbon emissions were at their highest ever between 2010 and 2019. Today, the rate of growth has slowed, but more reductions are urgently needed.
“We need to cut global emissions by 45 percent this decade,” says Guterres. “But current climate pledges would mean a 14-percent increase in emissions.”
How does this translate in our world? Cities under water, untold heatwaves, frightening storms, water shortages and the loss of animal and plant species will become more common.
But that’s not all. The Scienceacademic journal Science recently published data that our children are expected to face up to seven times more extreme weather events than their grandparents.
In vulnerable countries, climate change threatens child protection, child hunger and migration, creating barriers to live fearlessly.
How is climate change impacting communities where we work?
We’re already seeing intense weather events in the countries where we have sponsored children.
It’s impacting agriculture and livelihoods, contributing to poverty, malnutrition and gender inequalities among women and girls who often can’t access or control resources, education, information or community decision-making.
So, imagine the shift in lifestyle. In the past year-and-a-half, our teams in Africa, Asia and the Americas have responded to numerous emergency weather events. Consider: extreme heat, droughts and flooding in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Ethiopia; hurricanes in Nicaragua; floods, landslides and cyclones in India.
As one of the largest carbon emitters in the world, India has become among the most climate-affected countries. But, its people aren’t alone in feeling the effects.
Maria Isabel Lopez, our country director in Nicaragua, reminds me the Central American country is the second most affected by tropical storms, according to a report released by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery and The World Bank. The ecological area is also a dry corridor, which is prone to droughts.
Africa is facing troubling situations, too.
“[Extreme] heat is affecting water availability,” explains Christelle Kalhoule, our director of West Africa. She adds: “Dams are drying up and market gardening, which was an alternative source of income, is affected. Water shortages affect humans and animals, and it’s raising conflicts between farmers and breeders.”
The stories go on. It’s why our organization has become more and more agile.
We’re conducting frequent assessments to address rapidly changing contexts, identifying needs of the most vulnerable populations and providing timely emergency response so we can break barriers threatening their futures.
That’s led to strengthening our approach on psychosocial support following man-made emergencies, as well as those related to extreme weather events, partnering with emergency response and mitigation authorities and more.