Last year was the hottest on record — sparking major climate disasters across the globe.
More than 150 “unprecedented” heatwaves, floods and storms left a trail of destruction that included lost lives, destroyed infrastructure and decimated crops, Damian Carrington reported for The Guardian.
A record 800,000 people were displaced and left without a home as a result — the highest annual amount since record-keeping began in 2008, according to a report released by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The report adds to a growing amount of evidence of an accelerating climate crisis. As global carbon emissions persistently climb, 10 of the hottest years on record have occurred in the past decade.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo called the report a “wake-up call” to the increasing risks to lives, economies and the planet, the Guardian reported.
“In response, WMO and the global community are intensifying efforts to strengthen early warning systems and climate services to help society be more resilient to extreme weather,” she said.
According to Conservation International research, the impacts of extreme weather are very unevenly distributed — in large part because of the lack of early warning systems and other needed resources.
Although some developed and developing countries face a similar number of events, there are significant disparities in the impacts of those events, said Camila Donatti, the study’s lead author and a Conservation International expert on climate change adaptation.
“People living in developing countries are suffering far more from the effects of climate change,” she told Conservation News last year. “It’s not because they face a greater number of extreme events — it’s because they have fewer resources to prevent or recover from them.”
On average, about 45 percent of Africans are affected by climate disasters each year, compared to just 3 percent of Europeans, according to the study.
“Disasters like floods and wildfires can come almost out of nowhere if you don’t have warning systems in place,” Donatti said. “That’s what’s happening in many developing countries. They don’t know what’s coming, which can make it difficult — if not impossible — to evacuate.”
To make matters worse, many of the people affected are dealing with repeat disasters, Donatti said.
“The people most impacted by climate change are the least responsible for it,” she said. “Yet there continues to be a huge gap in the resources they are able to access to implement climate adaptation measures.”
While there is an urgent need for global action to address this resource gap, nature is a proven ally in helping to reduce the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
In Nepal, for example, protecting rainforests has helped prevent mudslides. In Kenya, implementing sustainable livestock grazing practices has reduced soil erosion from droughts. And in the Philippines protecting mangroves and marshes has decreased flooding from storms and sea-level rise.
“We like to call nature-based solutions ‘no-regret options,’” Donatti said. “They’re often cheaper, effective and already available.”
Further reading: As climate crisis accelerates, who bears the brunt?
Mary Kate McCoy is a staff writer at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also, please consider supporting our critical work.
