New report: $50 billion needed to help people save their own lives
The equivalent of a third of the world’s population has already been affected by weather-related disasters and this is set to soar because of climate change unless urgent international action is taken.
One of the UK’s leading relief and development agencies Tearfund says governments must commit at least $50 billion every year to helping the world’s most vulnerable communities prepare to save their own lives and livelihoods.
A new report called Climate of Disaster (PDF, 534K), published this week in Bali by Tearfund, reveals that in the last 10 years, weather-related disasters have killed over 443,000 people, affected 2.5 billion people and cost an estimated US$ 600 billion in economic losses. With climate change increasing the number and intensity of extreme events such as floods and droughts, more and more people are becoming vulnerable to a range of environmental disasters.
Without urgent action, this trend is set to rise, leading to unprecedented levels of suffering and deaths. Poor people will be hit hardest- they are the least able to cope, and live in the most vulnerable areas of the world. With each new disaster, precious gains made in poverty eradication are swept away.
As Bangladesh reels from the recent cyclone in which millions of people remain affected, it is clearer than ever before that the world must change the way it tackles weather-related disasters or face catastrophic consequences. The report shows that, based on past experience, Bangladesh is going to continue to be one of the worst-hit places on the planet.
The cyclone Sidr was one of more than 1,400 global disasters in the past five years alone.
Speaking at the UN Climate Change conference in Bali, (COP13) Andy Atkins, Tearfund’s Advocacy Director says: “It is time for the international community to take stronger action to support vulnerable communities’ efforts to reduce the risk of disaster. Airlifting stranded people from floodwaters and sending food packages to those affected by drought can no longer be our sole response to weather-related disasters. As a global community we have a moral responsibility to invest our aid money upfront in helping the planet’s poorest people prepare for predictable disaster. If we do not, then many thousands of lives will be needlessly lost and billions of pounds of aid money will not be used to best effect.”
Key highlights from Climate of Disaster:
- Every year weather-related disasters kill an average of 45,000 people. A further 245 million people are affected through homelessness, loss of income and destruction of infrastructure.
- In the past 10 years, weather-related disasters have accounted for 98% of all those affected by disasters- that’s 2.5 billion people.
- Scientists predict that climate change will increase the number and severity of extreme events like floods and droughts this century
- Over the last 30 years the number of the most intense hurricanes has doubled.
- 98% of those killed and affected by natural disasters come from developing countries, underlining the link between poverty and vulnerability to disaster
- The UN (OCHA) issued 15 emergency appeals in 2007. All but one of them was climate related. Two years ago only half the international disasters dealt with by OCHA were linked to climate.
- Simple, cost effective measures like evacuation, rescue training and storing food and medical supplies on safe ground can ensure that vulnerable communities are able to cope when disaster strikes.
Andy Atkins adds: “It is indefensible and illogical not to help communities prepare for disasters when we know which parts of the world are the most disaster-prone, and that lives can be saved through preventative measures. Very often, whole villages could be saved by even the simplest of techniques. But governments are wedded to emergency responses and remain obstinately slow to invest in reducing people’s vulnerability to disasters. It is rapidly becoming a scandal of inaction and there is now no excuse for not taking action. In the developed world we invest millions of pounds into reducing the risks associated with floods and droughts. Yet we do not follow the same strategy with our international aid budgets. Instead we wave sticking plasters at gaping wounds.”
Tearfund’s report argues that Governments are running out of time to get this right in the light of climate change: At the UN climate change conference (COP) this week, Governments must urgently prioritise dealing with the devastating effects of climate change through funding communities to adapt to climate change. A vital element of adaptation is helping communities reduce their vulnerability to disasters. Tearfund is calling for at least $50 billion every year. Unless governments do this as a matter of priority, preventable disasters will continue to undermine the efforts of poor people to escape poverty and the efforts of rich countries to help them.
Mr Atkins adds that those seeking to respond to climate change should adopt techniques already developed by disaster specialists, and that governments should adopt Disaster Risk Reduction as a key part of adaptation efforts. “There needs to be more crossover,” he contends.
Governments must also make more urgent and effective progress in tackling climate change to keep temperature rises as far below 2 degrees as possible. Developed countries must take the lead as those primarily responsible for causing the problem. They must demonstrate greater leadership by meeting their current emissions targets and must also commit to more ambitious cuts for the post-2012 period when the current framework (Kyoto Protocol) runs out.