The Challenges of Climate Change

In mankind’s  eagerness to ‘progress’ and ‘develop’ sight has been lost of the finite and delicate nature of planet Earth and of humanity’s place in it.  As a consequence the global climate has become unbalanced, leading to an increasing risk of floods, droughts and severe storms the world over.  In its 4^th Assessment Report, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that rising global temperature will cause increasing drought in mid-latitudes and semi-arid latitudes, increased water stress in many parts of the world, increased damage from storms, and coastal flooding affecting millions more people each year.

The commitment by G8 nations at the recently held summit in Rome to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 suggests that there is some serious concern about the effects of climate change such that nations are seriously looking at changing the way society meets its energy needs. 

Whilst the target is noteworthy, there are still a few outstanding issues that are yet to be resolved.  For example, in attempting to deal with developing the target, there has been no definite discussion on how this can be achieved.  In addition to this there are worries about the accountability aspect of such a long time frame. 

The political ramifications also have wide ranging consequences with many developing countries such as India and China unwilling to compromise their economic growth at the insistence of the Western governments.   So the long and short end of the discussion is that if the West wants an energy revolution from the developing world in order to combat climate change, it might have to fund it. 

Environmental campaigners are also concerned that many of the poorest nations who are the direct victims of climate change have not been involved in the current talks. The impacts of climate change are expected to affect disproportionately developing countries and the poor persons within all countries, thereby exacerbating inequities in health status and access to adequate food, clean water and other resources.    There are predictions that by 2080 an extra 600 million people worldwide could be affected by malnutrition. An extra 400 million people could be exposed to malaria. And an extra 1.8 billion people could be living without enough water.  It is expected that the amount that must be invested in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change is about 1% of the global GDP per annum.

Countries such as Bangladesh, Maldives and Sudan are very vulnerable and poverty is expected to increase and development to into reverse.  Bangladesh in particular is vulnerable  due to its low lying land and seeing increasing effects of climate change with the various cyclones and flash floods that have plagued it over the last couple of years.  One cant forget Cyclone Sidr which hit Bangladesh in 2007 and caused so much death and destruction.  Other cyclones have hit India and Myanmar in the past two years, the veracity being unprecedented.  Maldives is suffering from increasing sea water levels. 

Whilst these are responses to immediate problems, they are analgous to treating the wound with a bandage.  What is needed for effective long term sustainable development is to tackle climate change.

Climate change increases disaster risk in a number of ways. It changes the magnitude and frequency of extreme events6 (meaning that coping and response mechanisms and economic planning for disasters based on past vulnerabilities may no longer suffice) It changes average climatic conditions and climate variability, affecting underlying risk factors, and it generates new threats, which a region may have no experience in dealing with.

 If climate change adaptation policies and measures are to be efficient and effective they must build on and expand existing disaster risk reduction  efforts  And if disaster risk reduction approaches are to be sustainable they must account for the impact of climate change.

Faith Based Organisations, especially those inspired by Islam,  can use the basis of their origins to develop an effective response.  For instance by using Islamic teachings to offer an opportunity to understand the natural order to define human responsibility. In particular the concept of khalifah – vicegerents or representatives of God on earth and mizan – balance, can be used to reignite the  call to responsibility for the earth. The current environmental crisis is the result of long neglect on the part of humanity. The previous notion that human beings can behave with an idea of unlimited power towards nature is now questioned.   Thus these two concepts can be used to instill a move towards climate change adoption. 

Actions to address climate change falls under two broad themes:  preventing the worst extremes of it happening, and preparing for the inevitable effects that are already too late to prevent.  It is important that both of these are considered together.

There is a need to think seriously about the effects of climate change and more importantly about what can be done to address it.  The responsibility is collective  and not just dependent on government or Non Governmental Organisations.  It is the responsibility of all individuals to rise above their individuality and work towards the collective humanity.  There is no other greater responsibility than ensuring that climate change does not doom the world.

Amjad Saleem

References:

• DFID ‘Degrees of Separation – Climate Change: Shared Challenges; Shared Opportunities’, 2008
• Tearfund, ‘Linking Climate Change adaptation and disaster risk reduction’ , July 2008
• www.bbc.co.uk
• AMAN, ‘Consultation on Islamic Responses to Climate Change, October 2008