The seventh millennium development goal is probably the one most talked about in the media last years. Something is wrong with our planet’s environment and we are the cause. The seventh objective talks about the loss of environmental resources, sustainable development programs, the loss of biodiversity, sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation and finally the life of hundreds of millions slum dwellers. So far we have not made enough progress. For once The Voice will not just focus on this MDG. In stead, we will take look at the first report ever exclusively concerned with the global human impact on climate change, presented by Kofi Annan in London on May 29.

The report is called ‘Human Impact Report: Climate Change – The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis’. It was presented by Annan’s think tank, the Global Humanitarian Forum, a week before diplomats out of 192 countries gathered in Bonn to prepare the Copenhagen summit in december 2009. In Bonn the representatives discussed about the reduction of greenhouse gasses. It estimates that right now more than 300 million people are affected by climate change at a total economic cost of 125 billion dollar per year. This is more than the total amount of aid flowing from industrialised to developing countries each year. Climate change also causes 300,000 deaths annually.

By 2030 the situation will be even worse. The report expects that by then deaths will reach almost 500,000 per year and that more than 600 million will be affected by climate change, also per year.  The annual economic cost would grow until 300 billion dollar. 99% of the casualties affected by climate change would be people from developing countries. Kofi Annan is very clear about this: “Climate change is a human crisis which threatens to overwhelm the humanitarian system and turn back the clock on development. It is also a gross injustice – poor people in developing countries bear over 90% of the burden – through death, disease, destitution and financial loss.”

Annan continued: “Despite this, funding from rich countries to help the poor and vulnerable to adapt to climate change is not even 1 percent of what is needed. This glaring injustice must be addressed at Copenhagen in December”. Knowing that the industrialized countries are very much responsible for climate change, the word ‘injustice’ has been chosen very correct. It is at the end of the year that world leaders and their negotiators will have to decide on an ambitious international agreement to confront climate change. It promises to be a political battle on an international level. Some have argued that the ambitions in Copenhagen should be decreased because of the heavy financial crisis. Nothing is less true.
It is now that the solutions of two of the greatest global challenges should be partially merged. Climate and energy policy do not have to be seen as a part of the problem of the financial crisis, but it can be part of the solution. About the upcoming summit Annan is very clear: “The report is a clarion call for negotiators at Copenhagen to come to the most ambitious international agreement ever negotiated, or continue to accept mass starvation, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale”. A very obvious message. Now it is up to the industrialized world. |