Page 4 - AfrElec Week 09 2022

AfrElec COMMENTARY AfrElec

Urgent pivot to adaption

finance needed to contain

global warming

GLOBAL THE IPCC has warned in its latest climate report push small islands in particular.
that the effects of global warming are already Staple crop production will become impossi-
widespread, and that some are now irreversible. ble in places such as the tropics, threatening the
“Every fraction of a degree matters. Every world’s food security. There could be many “mul-
voice can make a difference. Every second tiple breadbasket failures” if global warming goes
counts,” UN secretary general Antonio Guterres past 1.5°C.
said.
“Coal and other fossil fuels are chok- Adaptation
ing humanity,” he went on, highlighting that The report stressed that the two most crucial
the report catalogued an “an atlas of human ways of combating climate change are adap-
suffering.” tation, which involves reducing climate risk,
People are getting “clobbered” by climate and mitigation, which is reducing emissions.
change and that the world’s biggest polluters It warned that far more investment in adapta-
were “guilty of arson” on our home, he added. tion measure were needed, with 80% of climate
financing now focused on mitigation.
Major impacts Guterres urged the world to invest more in
In terms of numbers, the report warned global adaption, which means spending cash on new
warming since the pre-industrial era now stood infrastructure to cope with current changes in
at 1.1°C, and that 3.3bn people were at risk now climate and temperatures.
to changes in the climate, while for the first time “Investments in adaptation work,” he said,
the IPCC warned that there will be major nega- adding that “Adaptation and mitigation must be
tive impacts on mental health as well as global pursued with equal urgency … Delay [on adap-
health in general. tation] means death,” he warned.
The report also stressed that nature had been Adaption is a major concern as most climate
hit harder than realised in previous reports. Half cash is now being spent on mitigation, or meas-
of the world’s species have shifted ranges and ures to reduce CO2 emissions.
some are extinct because of climate change. Adaptation finance accounts for only 20% of
Meanwhile, more land will become uninhab- overall climate finance and an even smaller share
itable because of rising, heating and acidifying goes to the most vulnerable communities. Least
seas, salty soils and higher air temperatures will Developed Countries (LDCs) have received

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