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A man carries his belongings across a flooded road after Storm Iota passes, in Marcovia, Honduras, November 18, 2020. © REUTERS / Jorge Cabrera
To combat climate change, the world must learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and act urgently, or risk far-reaching and lethal consequences for people who are forced to leave their homes, Assistant High Commissioner said today. for UNHCR Protection Gillian Triggs.
“The biggest cost will be the cost of doing nothing,” Triggs said in a virtual session of UNHCR’s annual High Commissioner Protection Dialogue. “We must act together. Unilaterally, we simply cannot respond effectively. “
In a discussion moderated by Al Jazeera correspondent for India Elizabeth Puranam, Triggs was joined by displaced persons, NGOs, academics and government speakers to discuss the effects of climate change on the world’s most vulnerable people, including those who have been forced to flee their home or are stateless. Drawing similarities to the COVID-19 pandemic, participants said the world must protect the vulnerable but also engage them in finding solutions.
“If we want to solve the problem of climate change, we must put the most vulnerable at the center,” said Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, a Chadian activist who defends environmental justice and the rights of indigenous peoples. Chad and other African Sahel countries face one of the fastest growing displacement crises and are disproportionately exposed to the negative effects of climate change and disasters, such as changing rainfall patterns that contribute to floods and droughts.
The most vulnerable in the world are enduring some of the worst effects of climate change. Rising temperatures can increase the insecurity of food, water and land, disrupting the services needed for human health, livelihood, settlement and survival. Invariably, among the most affected are the elderly, women, children, people with disabilities and indigenous peoples
The last decade has been the hottest on record. In 2019, nearly 2,000 disasters, most of them meteorological hazards, triggered 25 million new displaced people.
Climate change has continued to accelerate as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is no vaccine, there is no mask. We cannot close the border to climate change – this is not the solution, “Ibrahim said.” So we must act … and take all the solutions from science to traditional knowledge to save our people and our planet. “
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has appointed a Special Advisor for Climate Action for UNHCR’s strategic orientation and response definition to improve resilience of displaced people to climate risks and strengthen preparedness and resilience in disaster situations.
Established in 2007, the High Commissioner Dialogue enables the exchange of views between refugees, governments, civil society, the private sector, academics and international organizations on emerging challenges in humanitarian protection. This year’s five virtual sessions focus on the impact of COVID-19 on displaced people and stateless persons.
For more information on this topic, please contact:
In Geneva, Boris Cheshirkov, [email protected], +41 79 433 7682
In New York, Kathryn Mahoney, [email protected], +1 347 443 7646
For more information on the event and for the speaker biographies:
https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/covid-19-and-climate-change-what-can-we-learn.html
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