‘Climate apartheid’ to push millions into poverty — UN expert

MANILA, Philippines — Citing the risk of “climate apartheid” the world faces, a United Nations expert has underscored that climate change could push over 120 million more people into poverty by 2030.

Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said climate change “threatens to undo the last 50 years” of development, global health and poverty reduction and that this may lead to the risk of a new era of “climate apartheid” where the rich buy their way out of rising heat and hunger.

“Even if current targets are met, tens of millions will be impoverished, leading to widespread displacement and hunger,” he added.

He pointed out that climate change will have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable and will have the “most severe impact in poor countries, regions, and the places poor people live and work.”

Even in the best-case scenario of a 1.5°C temperature increase by 2100, extreme temperatures in many regions will leave disadvantaged populations food insecure, with less incomes and worsening health.

The expert said many would have to choose between starvation and migration.

“Perversely, while people in poverty are responsible for just a fraction of global emissions, they will bear the brunt of climate change, and have the least capacity to protect themselves. We risk a ‘climate apartheid’ scenario where the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger and conflict while the rest of the world is left to suffer,” he stressed.

Climate change carries immense implications for human rights, including to life, food, housing and water.

“It will also impact democracy as governments struggle to cope with climate consequences and persuade constituents to accept the major social and economic transformations required – rendering civil and political rights vulnerable,” Alston said.

He added that “most human rights bodies have barely begun to grapple with what climate change portends for human rights, and it remains one on a long laundry list of ‘issues’, despite the extraordinarily short time to avoid catastrophic consequences.”

As a full-blown crisis that threatens the human rights of vast numbers of people bears down, Alston noted that the usual piecemeal, issue-by-issue human rights methodology is woefully insufficient.

“States have marched past every scientific warning and threshold, and what was once considered catastrophic warming now seems like a best-case scenario,” Alston said. “Even today, too many countries are taking short-sighted steps in the wrong direction.”

States are even failing to meet their current carbon emissions reduction and climate financing commitments and continue to subsidize the fossil fuel industry with $5.2 trillion per year.