Why are poor people more vulnerable to climate disasters?
Impact of climate change on our lives is growing manifold with increase in both slow and sudden onset climate crisis events. "For sudden onset events, humanitarian response has always been the go-to option as it is the default mode of the international community. But as we heard in the conference humanitarian response also has its limits with donor fatigue being one of the challenges. Humanitarian response is still important and relevant, but it is not enough to find answers to difficult questions of why are poor people more vulnerable in the first place? Japan for instance, has faced many natural disasters and climate events as well as nuclear disasters, but Japanese people are not migrating in massive numbers. So, there must be something within the Japanese economy and the way Japanese society and government is organized that gives support to the people if such disasters or occurrences happen. We do not find those support mechanisms in our countries, so people are forced to move away from their original communities," said Tetet Nera Lauron.
Corporate capture of global climate treaty process?
"We have been pushing for conflict of interest policy within the global climate treaty (formally called the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - UNFCCC), but unfortunately it has not progressed much. We cannot have oil or fossil fuel companies negotiating about climate policy because there is a fundamental conflict of interest. Fossil fuel companies would never push for laws that would regulate their profit seeking activities. Big countries supported by a strong fossil fuel lobby are effectively blocking any meaningful discussion on conflict of interest policy. There is really a corporate capture of this UN space for climate change treaty negotiations. We need to take the battle elsewhere - if we cannot get results from the UN bodies then we need to hit the fossil fuel industries where it hurts the most - cut the finance pipeline" stressed Tetet Nera Lauron.
Sharing the Manila Initiative adopted at this conference, Tetet Nera Lauron said: "Manila Initiative on Rights of Climate Migrants provides us a framework on how we understand the problem of climate migration, gives guidance and shares analysis on why poor people are forced to migrate and what policy-asks and demands we should be asking our governments and other actors."
Manila Initiative on the rights of climate migrants
This Manila Initiative underlines: "displacement is the pinnacle of the worst impacts of climate change. Forced migration in the face of ecological violence is a last resort for many people. Millions of people daily, most notably those living in the Global South, leave their homes because of a lack of choice in terms of economic and environmental survival. By 2050 the UN estimates that up to one billion people will have been displaced because of environmental factors.
The climate crisis is the culmination of centuries of resource plunder and environmental destruction of the Global South by Global North countries. Those who contributed the least (or not at all) to the causes of this crisis are experiencing the worst of its impacts, and, has also exacerbated their exposure to a myriad of structural inequities. They lose access to their lands, food, water and other sources of income and their ability to manage them."
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