Extreme storms, floods and droughts …
About fifty international leaders called on Monday to speed up preparation for the effects of climate change, recalling that most of these phenomena are “tragically, already inexorable”.
These consequences “will put people, communities and the global economy at risk like never before and pose major new threats to biodiversity and human health,” said in a statement. the Global Center for Adaptation (GCA).
Not the same attention
Founded in 2018, the GCA is an international organization dedicated to accelerating the world’s adaptation to the effects of climate change. It is chaired by former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
Adaptation – including advanced warning systems, adaptation of infrastructure, agricultural improvements – according to the GCA has not received the same attention, the same resources or the same level of action on the ground as the reduction of carbon emissions. greenhouse gases, leaving communities around the world exposed to a climate emergency faster than expected. A dialogue, bringing together some fifty political leaders and climate and development specialists in the presence of Ban Ki-Moon and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, was held on Monday on the occasion of the inauguration in Rotterdam from GCA headquarters.
A major worsening of climate impacts
The participants – ministers, mayors, heads of international organizations and development banks – described in a statement the measures to be taken, according to them, at the world climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November, in particular the revision of the adaptation plans for which the United Nations has committed to devote 100 billion dollars per year. “Countries are ready for a new ambition in adaptation, and are also ready for large-scale finance for adaptation,” said Ban Ki-moon.
A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that a major worsening of climate impacts would occur a decade earlier than expected, with unprecedented and some irreversible changes. The world has already been confronted this year with extreme climatic events: spectacular fires in Greece and Turkey, forest fires in Siberia and California, famine in Madagascar, exceptional floods in China and Germany, record heatwaves in Canada…