In six years time the number of people affected by climatic crises is projected to rise by 54 per cent to 375 million people, threatening to overwhelm the humanitarian aid system, according to international aid agency, Oxfam.
- The projected rise is mainly due to a combination of entrenched poverty and people migrating to densely populated slums which are prone to the increasing number of climatic events. This is compounded by the political failure to address these risks and a humanitarian system that is not fit for the purpose. In its report, The Right to Survive, Oxfam says the world needs to re-engineer the way it responds to, prepares for and prevents disasters.
And as climate change gathers pace, this trend is likely to continue to increase well beyond 2015.
Rich countries must commit now to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to keep global warming as far below 2°C as possible, and to provide at least $50 billion a year in finance to help poor countries adapt to unavoidable climate change.
It is estimated that up to a billion people will be forced from their homes by 2050 due to climate change, environmental degradation, and conflict.
- “Climate change is already threatening our work to overcome poverty, increasing the pressure on an already-difficult task of bringing relief to millions,” the Oxfam report states. “It is crucial that we tackle climate change head-on. We need governments to raise their game. The world must agree a global deal to avoid catastrophic climate change, stop the fickle way it delivers aid, and radically improve how it responds to disasters.”
To read the full Oxfam report see
http://www.oxfamireland.org/news/releases/2009/04-21.shtml.