Climate change: A threat underestimated?

While the world is currently focused on controlling the coronavirus pandemic, it is overlooking the threat of climate change or global warming. A recent report by an Australian think tank disclosed that ecological shocks caused by climate change would adversely affect the poor and under developed countries by 2030!

What are some of the risks that may be caused by this underestimated threat? They are as follows: population growth resulting in a heavy urbanization, food insecurity, water shortage, floods, typhoons, droughts, rising temperatures and sea levels.

A new risk is the annual forest fires in the USA and Indonesia, causing hazardous air pollution. In addition, it is also feared that climate change could expose new epidemics. The think tank also claimed that at least 60 percent of the countries covered would be exposed to flood threats due to rising sea levels and temperatures caused by the melting of the glaciers in both the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, thus water and food scarcity would follow as the global population outpaces the world’s resources.

A report by the United Nations emphasized the importance of reducing greenhouse- gas emission and limit global mean temperature increase to 1.5 degree Celcius above pre-industrial levels. This was the commitment agreed upon by 153 nations at the Paris Agreement in 2015. It is fortunate that a number of major nations have pledged to support forest protection and other nature-based solutions.

In Asia-pacific, we cite the valued contribution of Mitsui Sumitomo

Insurance Co. Ltd. of Japan, which has partnered with Conservation International Asia-pacific to support conservation efforts and raising awareness about the importance of biodiversity and nature. MSIG has also launched a knowledge portal to highlight biodiversity conservation. The public can visit the knowledge portal at www.msig.asia.com/ biodiversity.

Just recently, Mr. Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, in his opening speech at the Climate Ambition Summit held online to mark five years since the Paris conference, called on governments to declare a state of climate emergency and make good on their promises to slash carbon pollution. It was also disclosed that the pandemic lockdowns and restriction of movements have brought down carbon emissions by 7 percent.

To cope with calamities and disasters, either natural or manmade, it is vital to invest substantially in resilience measures. A forward step by the Philippines is the proposed Disaster Resilience Department, which will be responsible in managing and organizing national efforts to prevent and reduce disaster risks.