Sally Hayden: Climate change is human made, but not all humans have played same role in it

Madagascar, a beautiful island off the southeast coast of Africa, is experiencing what is being widely described as the world's first famine caused by climate change.

More than 1.1 million people in the country's south are struggling to get food. By June, at least 14,000 were experiencing a "catastrophic" level of food deprivation, while 400,000 were "marching towards starvation", according to World Food Programme (WFP) executive director David Beasley.

The aid official described meeting women and children who walked for hours to get to food distribution points, “holding on for dear life [and] these were the ones who were healthy enough to make it”.

Some Malagasys survived on raw red cactus fruits, wild leaves and locusts for months. “This is enough to bring even the most hardened humanitarian to tears,” said Beasley.

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Between 1990 and 2015, the richest 10 per cent of the world's population (about 630 million people) were responsible for 52 per cent of the cumulative carbon emissions

The crisis is the result of back-to-back droughts. “This is not because of war or conflict, this is because of climate change,” he said. “This is an area of the world that has contributed nothing to climate change, but now, they’re the ones paying the highest price.’’

The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released this week, reigniting a debate around whether rich countries should be paying compensation to poorer countries, after reaping the benefits that came from so many decades of polluting the environment.

United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres called the report "a code red for humanity", while saying governments, business and civil society must unite to limit further temperature rise. "We owe this to the entire human family, especially the poorest and most vulnerable communities and nations that are the hardest hit."

While the current situation is human made, not all humans have played the same role in it.

Between 1990 and 2015, the richest 10 per cent of the world’s population (about 630 million people) were responsible for 52 per cent of the cumulative carbon emissions. In contrast, the poorest 50 per cent of the planet (roughly 3.1 billion people) were responsible for just 7 per cent of cumulative emissions, and used just 4 per cent of the available carbon budget, according to Oxfam.

"Historically, Africa is responsible for only 3 per cent of global emissions," said Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate in a video posted on social media last Sunday. "And yet Africans are suffering some of the most brutal impacts of the climate crisis – droughts, hurricanes, floods, cyclones, landslides. The climate crisis is our reality."

Nakate made headlines around the world last year when she denounced "racism" in the global climate movement, after she was cut out of a news wire photograph while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos. Left in the photograph were four white activists, including Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

Many developing countries lack the means to properly prepare for climate change-related disasters. And when they strike, citizens have no social security nets to protect them

For Nakate, this epitomised how the continent is being left out of conversations about tackling climate change. Since then, the 24-year-old has become a notable voice, calling for Africans to be consulted and considered.

In Uganda, an east African country of roughly 44 million people, a small shift in rains can cause big problems for subsistence farmers, who rely on the seasonal harvest to feed themselves and their families. In some communities, the period before the harvest is referred to as the “hungry season”.

Last month, Alok Sharma, the president of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) called on rich nations to deliver a long-promised $100 billion (€85 billion) per year, which was pledged by 2020, with the aim of helping developing countries respond to climate change.

“It’s just a fraction of the investment needed . . . But it is essential for helping developing countries on a path to a clean, green future,” said Sharma. “With support, these countries can leapfrog polluting technologies as their economies develop, and protect themselves from climate change, through so-called climate adaptation. Delivering the $100 billion is also a matter of trust; and trust matters in international climate politics.”

Burning fossil fuels

COP26 is scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November. More than 100 developing countries have set out a list of demands ahead of it, calling for "responsibilities . . . to be acknowledged and promised measures delivered", especially by "nations that became prosperous through the untrammelled burning of fossil fuels".

They also asked for funding to be given in the form of grants rather than loans. “Apart from raising questions about the commitment of donor nations to the spirit of promises they have made repeatedly over the last decade, provision of debt-orientated climate finance presents a huge burden to poor nations; indeed, it may actually harm them by contributing to unsustainable debt levels, which have been pushed even higher by the Covid-19 pandemic,” notes the document.

Many developing countries lack the means to properly prepare for climate change-related disasters. And when they strike, citizens have no social security nets to protect them.

The result is often requests for foreign aid. In May, two UN agencies, including the WFP, made an appeal for more than $110 million to provide enough food in southern Madagascar to feed citizens until the end of the year. But many people could die in the meantime and what about the next year; and the year after that?