It’s official: July was the warmest month on record. Global warming is really happening, and its costs continue to accumulate. The World Meteorological Organization recently observed that “weather, climate and water events gave rise to 11,788 reported disasters between 1970 and 2021, with more than two million deaths and 4.3 trillion dollars (about four trillion euros) in economic losses. ”.
Like a pandemic, climate change affects everyone, everywhere. Yellowknife, capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories, recently had to be evacuated as hundreds of wildfires ravaged the region, while the United States faced the resurgence of infectious mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus and dengue. In parts of Asia, heavy monsoon rains caused flooding and destroyed livelihoods. In Malawi, two destructive storms exacerbated a prolonged cholera outbreak that claimed 1,600 lives. The list goes on and on.
However, the effects are not distributed evenly: nine out of ten deaths and 60% of the economic losses caused by climate crises and extreme weather conditions occur in developing countries. I have witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of landslides in Nanka, my hometown in southeastern Nigeria. Over the years, increased gully erosion [grandes hoyos en rocas y suelos] It has taken homes, destroyed farmland and contributed to increased food insecurity.
The disastrous consequences of climate change are reminiscent of the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed more than six million people, destroyed businesses and livelihoods, and wreaked havoc on the global economy. In fact, the global response to Covid – today a permanent health problem rather than a health emergency – holds important lessons for mitigating global warming.
To begin with, climate change constitutes what the World Health Organization calls a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) and should be treated as such. Global warming meets the typical WHO definition of what a PHEIC is: “An extraordinary event that constitutes a public health risk to other States through the international spread of diseases and that potentially requires a coordinated international response.” However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), rather than the WHO, is in a better position to lead the fight, as it already provides governments with scientific information for the development of climate policies.
The effects of climate change are not distributed evenly: nine out of ten deaths and 60% of the economic losses caused by climate crises and extreme weather conditions occur in developing countries.
Second, the global South must take on a greater climate leadership role. The underrepresentation of African health leaders in the creation of the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (Covax) was a major obstacle to the global response to the pandemic. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, along with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the WHO, had created Covax to ensure equitable access to Covid vaccines, but the initiative – conceived with a colonialist mindset – achieved results clearly insufficient with respect to the ideal that was proposed.
The IPCC has made the same mistake: only a small percentage of the authors of its reports come from Africa. Leaders in Africa – a continent that disproportionately bears the effects of climate change, having been the continent that has contributed the least to the global emissions that drive it – must be at the center of decision-making processes.
Third, Governments should take steps to counter disinformation and false information. Falsehoods proliferated during the pandemic, causing a infodemic, that is, an excess of information, both legitimate and misleading. With nearly 5 billion users worldwide, social media platforms accelerated the spread of false claims about Covid. But authorities and academics could also use them to expose the real data.
To educate the public about climate change, its consequences, and how to build a greener world, more scientists and experts from other fields would need to post on social media and interact with users. Worryingly, of the users who used to tweet about global warming and biodiversity, almost half have deactivated six months after Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now called X) and created more space for the spread of false information.
Rich countries have a moral responsibility to provide climate aid to poorer countries, given their historical emissions
Fourth, all countries must pay their fair share for global response efforts. During the pandemic, rich countries were asked to provide funding to help low- and middle-income countries gain access to Covid medicines, tests and vaccines, with mixed results.
Similarly, rich countries have a moral responsibility to provide climate aid to poorer countries, due to their historical emissions. Last year, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) took an important step in that direction with the creation of a loss and damage fund for developing countries facing the effects of global warming. However, as commendable as such a move may be, vulnerable countries must also improve their governance and combat corruption to mitigate climate change. For example, gold equivalent to $9 billion (€8.3 billion) is smuggled out of Nigeria every year. The government could have invested those lost revenues in environmental projects, such as preventing landslides in Nanka.
Finally, hoarding is useless when faced with crises of truly global reach. During the pandemic, several countries in the global North exacerbated inequality by hoarding protective equipment, tests, vaccines and therapies, and by clinging to intellectual property protections. And yet, infectious diseases do not respect borders, nor does climate change. Every country on the planet suffers its devastating consequences, although in different ways.
The response to climate change requires seeing and understanding the global community as a single entity. My tribe in Nigeria, the Igbo, has a phrase that underlines the importance of acting collectively: “Ìgwèbụ̀íké”. It means “we are stronger when we are united.” The pandemic demonstrated the need for an egalitarian model of global governance if we are to have any hope of passing on a habitable planet to future generations.
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