•Average annual extreme weather-related humanitarian funding appeals for 2000-2002 were at least $1.6 billion and rose to an average of $15.5 billion in 2019-2021, an 819 percent increase.
•Rich countries responsible for most of today’s climate change impacts have met only an estimated 54 percent of these appeals since 2017, leaving a shortfall of up to $33 billion.
Image: COURTESY
The amount of money needed for the United Nations humanitarian appeals involving extreme weather events like floods or drought is now eight times higher than 20 years ago.
A new report by Oxfam titled, "Footing the Bill", released on Tuesday says donors are failing to keep up
It says that for every $2 (Sh234) needed for UN weather-related appeals, donor countries are only providing $1 (Sh117).
Average annual extreme weather-related humanitarian funding appeals for 2000-02 were at least $1.6 billion and rose to an average of $15.5 billion in 2019-21, an 819 per cent increase.
Rich countries responsible for most of today’s climate change impacts have met only an estimated 54 per cent of these appeals since 2017, leaving a shortfall of up to $33 billion.
The countries with the most recurring appeals against extreme weather crises include Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe.
Already, 3.5 million Kenyans are going to bed on empty stomachs.
The report says the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events due to climate change is putting more pressure on an already over-stretched and underfunded humanitarian system.
The costs of the destruction from these storms, droughts and floods are also increasing inequality.
People in poorer communities and low-income countries are the worst hit yet they lack the systems and funding that wealthier countries have.
The richest one per cent of people on earth is emitting twice as much carbon pollution as the poorest half of humanity.
The UN appeals focus on the most urgent humanitarian needs, but that barely scratches the surface of the real costs of loss and damage that climate change is now wreaking on countries’ economies.
The economic cost of extreme weather events in 2021 alone was estimated to be $329 billion globally, the third-highest year on record.
This is nearly double the total aid given by rich nations to the developing world that year.
The costs of loss and damage to low- and middle-income countries, for instance, the money needed to rebuild homes and hospitals or provide shelter, food and emergency cash transfers after a cyclone could reach between $290 billion and $580 billion a year by 2030.
This does not account for non-economic losses such as the loss of life, cultures, ways of living, and biodiversity.
UN appeals represent just a small part of the costs of climate disasters for people who are vulnerable and they only reach a fraction of those suffering.
Oxfam's research shows that UN appeals cover only about 474 million of the estimated 3.9 billion people in low- and middle-income countries affected by extreme weather-related disasters since 2000, equivalent to one in eight people.
“Human activity has made the world 1.1˚C warmer than pre-industrial levels and we are now suffering the consequences. More alarming still, we will overshoot the 1.5˚C safety threshold on current projections," Oxfam Executive Director Gabriela Bucher said.
"The cost of climate destruction will keep rising and our failure to cut emissions will have catastrophic consequences for humanity. We can’t ignore the huge economic and non-economic losses, damages that underlie this picture — the loss of life, homes, schools, jobs, culture, land, Indigenous and local knowledge, and biodiversity."
“This is the climate chaos we have been warning about. Many countries that are being hardest hit are already facing crises including conflict, food inflation and the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic leading to rising inequality, mass displacement, hunger and poverty."
Humanitarian disasters affect men and women differently. Women face long-standing inequalities that undermine their ability to cope.
Women’s rights and progress towards gender equity are threatened with every disaster.
The UNDP estimates that 80 percent of people being displaced by climate change are women.
“Poor countries cannot be expected to foot the bill and increase aid, which while helpful, it's the answer. Paying the cost of climate-driven loss and damages should be on the basis of responsibility and not charity," Bucher said.
"Rich countries, rich people and big corporations most responsible for causing climate change must pay for the harm they are causing."
Rich and industrialised countries have contributed around 92 per cent of excess historical emissions and 37 per cent of current emissions. Africa’s current emissions stand at just 4 per cent.
Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia, where more than 24.4 million people now face severe levels of hunger and food insecurity are responsible for just 0.1 per cent of current global emissions.
Rich industrialised nations have stymied loss and damage finance negotiations for years.
At COP26 in Glasgow, they rejected developing countries’ calls for a new finance facility to address loss and damage and instead agreed to a three-year ‘Glasgow Dialogue’ to discuss future arrangements.
“This just added insult to injury,” Bucher said.
The report says a finance facility should be established to address loss and damage under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
It says this will help to coordinate an effective and equitable global response to climate-induced loss and damage.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)