Climate crisis costs up over 800% as UN donor nations fail to keep pace, report says
The report, released Tuesday by Oxfam, found not only is the need for extreme weather-related UN humanitarian funding now sharply higher than 20 years ago, but donor nations are also failing to keep up with the staggering “Climate change is harming, and will continue to harm, Black, Indigenous, and people of color and other vulnerable communities first and worst — disrupting their livelihoods, culture, health, and way of life,” Russell Armstrong, Oxfam America’s senior climate policy adviser, told CNN. “Even though the economic toll of climate change, estimated between $300 billion and $500 billion globally, is on par with government subsidies for fossil fuels, calls for solutions have gone unheard,” he added.Since 2017, roughly 54% of the developed countries Meanwhile, rich countries such as the United States continue to emit more of the emissions that fuel these extreme weather events. As the biggest historical emitter of carbon pollution “the US has an obligation to the global community to prioritize the fight against climate change and help foot the bill on the costs of destruction from extreme weather,” Armstrong said. According to the report, the UN humanitarian appeals only cover a small fraction — roughly 7.5% or 474 million of the estimated 3.9 billion people — of low- and middle-income nations that have been plagued by climate change-fueled disasters since the beginning of this century.The report was published as ministers meet in Bonn, Germany, for climate talks to discuss the issue of “loss and damage,” essentially the payment of funds from the wealthy world to countries dealing with more severe impacts of the climate crisis.
