Climate
crisis linked to at least 15 $1bn-plus disasters in 2019
Christian
Aid report highlights costs of floods, fires and storms around the world
Fiona
Harvey Environment correspondent
Fri 27 Dec
2019 13.08 GMTLast modified on Fri 27 Dec 2019 15.00 GMT
Climate
breakdown played a key role in at least 15 events in 2019 that cost more than
$1bn (£760m) in damage, with more than half of those costing more than $10bn
each.
Extreme
weather including floods, storms, droughts and wildfires struck every inhabited
continent in the past year, causing devastation and loss of life. Christian
Aid, which tracked climate-related destruction in 2019, said the costs in human
terms and insured losses were likely to have been underestimated.
Floods in
Argentina and Uruguay in January this year forced 11,000 people from their
homes. Cyclone Idai killed 1,300 people in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi in
March, and Cyclone Fani struck India and Bangladesh in May and June. A stronger
than usual monsoon killed 1,900 people in India.
Richer
countries were also badly affected, with Storm Eberhard hitting Europe in March
and the typhoons Faxai and Hagibis battering Japan in September and October,
disrupting the Rugby World Cup. Wildfires laid waste to farming areas in
California and caused more than $25bn in damage, and Hurricane Dorian swept
along the US east coast, killing 673 people.
The study
published on Friday was compiled before the full effects of the Australian
wildfires could be assessed.
Kat Kramer,
a co-author of the report and the global climate lead at Christian Aid, said
time was running out to tackle the climate crisis.
“Last year,
[greenhouse gas] emissions continued to rise, so it’s essential that nations
prepare new and enhanced pledges for action to [fulfil] the Paris agreement as
soon as possible,” she said. “That will ensure the world responds urgently to
the warnings of scientists, as well as the demands from schoolchildren around
the globe who are horrified at the kind of world they are being forced to
inherit.”
Hurricane
Dorian caused at least $11bn in losses, and floods in the midwest and south of
the US from March to June cost about $12.5bn. India’s losses from floods and
Cyclone Fani alone came to more than $18bn, and these estimates covered only
insured losses. Typhoon Lekima in China was estimated to have cost at least
$10bn, and floods in China from June to August cost a similar amount.
Experts
said the extreme weather and record-breaking temperatures were clearly linked
to human actions.
Michael
Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State
University, said: “If anything, 2019 saw even more profound extreme weather
events around the world than last year, including wildfires from the Amazon to
the Arctic, and devastating out-of-season simultaneous wildfires in California
and Australia, winter heatwaves and devastating superstorms.
“With each
day now, we are seemingly reminded of the cost of climate inaction in the form
of ever-threatening climate change-spiked weather extremes.”
Governments
failed to make much progress at the UN climate talks in Madrid earlier this
month, but campaigners hope the public concern and activism around the world,
as well as reminders of the vast and growing economic and social costs of
inaction, will act as a spur.
Nations
will meet in Glasgow in early November to update their plans under the Paris
accord, which binds them to take action to ensure global temperature rises do
not exceed 2C above pre-industrial levels.
This article is more than 3 months old
UK to host
crucial global talks on tackling climate emergency
COP26
meeting in Glasgow in 2020 will determine future course of efforts to avert
crisis
Fiona
Harvey Environment correspondent
Tue 10 Sep
2019 19.14 BSTFirst published on Tue 10 Sep 2019 18.05 BST
Britain is
to host a crunch climate conference next year at which the future direction of
global efforts to avert the climate crisis will be determined, the government
has confirmed.
The COP26
meeting, under the auspices of the UN, will take place in Glasgow in December
2020, with about 30,000 delegates expected as well as leaders of most of the
world’s governments, making it the biggest international summit to be hosted in
the UK.
After
months of behind-the-scenes preparations, the UK was confirmed as co-host with
Italy, where some preparatory meetings will take place, when other countries
signalled their acceptance on Tuesday.
The
announcement shines a spotlight on the UK’s diplomatic standing on the world
stage after Brexit and will bring intense scrutiny of the British government’s
actions on the climate emergency.
Before her
departure, one of Theresa May’s final acts as prime minister was to enshrine in
law a commitment to ensure the country had net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Dominic
Raab, the foreign secretary, said: “The UK has just received a huge vote of
confidence from our international partners. We’re ready to bring the world
together to make sure we leave our previous environment in a better state for
our children.”
Kicking off
the government’s global diplomatic push, which will encompass developing as
well as developed countries, the Department for International Development said
British overseas aid had helped poor and vulnerable nations cut their
greenhouse gas emissions by 16m tonnes in the past eight years, the equivalent
of taking 3m cars off the road for a year.
These
included projects to provide clean energy in Kenya, Rwanda and Mali, and
helping farmers grow climate-resilient crops or put in measures to save water.
Alok
Sharma, the international development secretary, said: “This nomination [to
host COP26] is testimony to the UK’s leading role in the fight against climate
change. UK aid has helped millions of people in developing countries to access
clean energy and prepare for the impacts of climate change.”
Civil
society groups and businesses also called for the UK to take action on its
net-zero commitment as part of the hosting role.
Tanya
Steele, the chief executive of WWF UK, said: “This is a real opportunity for us
to showcase our vision of a greener future, powered by renewable energy, with
flourishing sustainable industries and a restored natural world.
“But if we
want other countries to follow our lead, we will have to be able to show that
we have backed our bold commitments with concrete action.”
Stephanie
Pfeifer, the chief executive of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate
Change, said: “The UK should use its diplomatic influence to encourage other
countries to make similar pledges [to reduce carbon to net zero] in the run-up
to the summit to ensure it’s a success.”
However,
some experts are worried Brexit will distract ministers and officials from
climate issues.
The
conference will be the most important on the climate since the Paris agreement was
passed in 2015, because the future of the pledges countries made will be
reviewed.
Nations
agreed to a legally binding commitment in Paris to keep global temperature
rises to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, but also offered national
pledges to cut or curb their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Those
pledges were insufficient to meet the 2C requirement, so governments will be
expected to come up with more ambitious offerings in 2020.
Progress
made to date will also be assessed. Most countries, including the US, China,
India and the UK, as well as the EU, have national or bloc-wide pledges to cut
or curb greenhouse gas emissions growth by 2020, agreed before Paris, so
auditing whether these are met will be a key aim.
Probably
the most watched effect on the talks, however, will be the outcome of the US
presidential election, which takes place on 3 November 2020, weeks before the
conference. Donald Trump has begun the process of withdrawing the US from the
Paris agreement, but withdrawal cannot legally take place until 4 November next
year.
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