Invest more money to limit the consequences of climate change and obtain not only environmental but also economic benefits through innovation. This is the proposal launched on Tuesday by the hundred or so experts who make up the World Commission on Adaptation to Climate Change and which they detail in an international report in which they urge politicians to take action.
According to their estimates, allocating 1.63 trillion euros globally between 2020 and 2030 to adapt to the consequences of climate change could generate 6.9 trillion euros in net benefits, i.e. four times more than the money invested.
Specifically, the experts mention five areas in which they consider it a priority to invest: early warning systems, climate change resilient infrastructure, improving agricultural productivity in low water scenarios, mangrove protection and investments to secure water resources.
Effects already visible
The World Commission on Adaptation to Climate Change, led by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, businessman Bill Gates and economist Kristalina Georgieva, urges policymakers to step up global leadership to accelerate adaptation to climate change whose effects, they say, are already palpable in many parts of the world. We are facing a crisis, says the report, and while «global actions to slow climate change are promising, they are insufficient».
His proposal comes a few days before New York hosts the UN Climate Action Summit, where countries must get down to work to make the commitments made in the Paris Agreement a reality, and in the midst of the crisis caused by the fires in the Amazon and by the destructive Hurricane Dorian, which has claimed the lives of at least 45 people in its passage through the Bahamas.
The experts who signed this paper argue that the next 15 months will be critical for mobilizing action on climate change and call on countries to increase their level of ambition ahead of the New York summit on September 23 and the Climate Summit (COP25) to be held in Chile in December.
The report highlights how highly destructive hurricanes, floods and wildfires are fast becoming an urgent issue. «Climate change affects people all over the world. Moreover, if no action is taken, more than 100 million people in developing countries will be pushed into poverty by 2050, leading to «increased conflict and instability.».
Citizens will also have less food and water available to meet their basic needs. Without adaptation, the report says, climate change could reduce agricultural production by up to 30%. Most affected would be the 500 million smallholder farmers around the world, whose incomes would be reduced. It would also increase the number of people who do not get enough water for at least one month a year (from the 3.6 billion citizens who currently suffer this situation, to 5 billion in 2050).
‘A human imperative’
Therefore, the authors of the study, presented by Ban Ki Moon and former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres, consider that accelerating adaptation is a human, environmental and economic «imperative».
«Climate change does not respect borders. It is an international problem that can only be solved through cooperation and collaboration,» said Ban Ki Moon in a press release. According to the former head of the UN, «it is becoming increasingly clear that in many parts of the world the climate has already changed and we need to adapt to those changes». It is not only the right thing to do and the right thing to do; «it is also the smart thing to do to boost the global economy,» he added.
The report also cites some examples of successful measures implemented in various countries to cope with climate change, from maize crops that require little water and have enabled a significant increase in production in Zimbabwe, to infrastructures in London or in towns in Denmark to prevent flooding. The report stresses that we are not starting from scratch, as efforts have already begun. What is needed is for them to be made on a larger scale, with greater urgency and more innovation.
As the authors point out, the good news is that «adaptation, if done well, will lead to greater growth and development. It will also save lives, protect nature, reduce inequalities and create opportunities.».
