Climate crisis fills top five places of World Economic Forum’s risks report - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Climate crisis fills top five places of World Economic Forum’s risks report.

For first time, environment is at top of list of issues worrying world’s elite.

A year of extreme weather events and mounting evidence of global heating have catapulted the climate emergency to the top of the list of issues worrying the world’s elite.
The World Economic Forum’s annual risks report found that, for the first time in its 15-year history, the environment filled the top five places in the list of concerns likely to have a major impact over the next decade.

Børge Brende, the president of the World Economic Forum, said: “The political landscape is polarised, sea levels are rising and climate fires are burning. This is the year when world leaders must work with all sectors of society to repair and reinvigorate our systems of cooperation, not just for short-term benefit but for tackling our deep-rooted risks.”
After a month in which bushfires have raged out of control in Australia, Brende said there was a need for urgent action.
“We have only a very small window and if we don’t use that window in the next 10 years we will be moving around the deckchairs on the Titanic.”
The WEF report said the retreat from the multilateral approach that helped cope with the 2008 financial crisis made it more difficult to tackle shared global risks.
It said the top five risks in terms of likelihood in the next 10 years were:
• Extreme weather events with major damage to property, infrastructure and loss of human life.
• Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation by governments and businesses.
• Human-made environmental damage and disasters, including environmental crime, such as oil spills and radioactive contamination.
• Major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse with irreversible consequences for the environment, resulting in severely depleted resources for humankind as well as industries.
• Major natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and geomagnetic storms.
The report was released ahead of the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos next week, which will be attended by the chief executives of some of the world’s biggest and powerful companies. Despite the large number of participants flying in to Switzerland by private jet, the WEF said Davos would be a carbon-neutral event.
But John Drzik, the chairman of Marsh & McLennan insights, which helped to compile the report, said businesses had to step up their action on global heating.
“There is mounting pressure on companies from investors, regulators, customers, and employees to demonstrate their resilience to rising climate volatility. Scientific advances mean that climate risks can now be modelled with greater accuracy and incorporated into risk management and business plans.
High-profile events, like recent bushfires in Australia and California, are adding pressure on companies to take action on climate risk at a time when they also face greater geopolitical and cyber risk challenges.”
Peter Giger, group chief risk officer of Zurich Insurance Group, which also collaborates in the preparation of the risks report, said there was a pressing need to adapt faster to avoid the worst and irreversible impacts of the climate crisis and to do more to protect the planet’s biodiversity.
“Biologically diverse ecosystems capture vast amounts of carbon and provide massive economic benefits that are estimated at $33tn (£25tn) per year – the equivalent to the GDP of the US and China combined. It’s critical that companies and policymakers move faster to transition to a low carbon economy and more sustainable business models.
“We are already seeing companies destroyed by failing to align their strategies to shifts in policy and customer preferences. Transitionary risks are real, and everyone must play their part to mitigate them. It’s not just an economic imperative, it is simply the right thing to do,” he said.


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Climate crisis fills top five places of World Economic Forum’s risks report.

Cut inequality to fight climate crisis - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Cut inequality to fight climate crisis.

Economic inequality raises carbon emissions, with the rich contributing most: Human Development Index

Rising inequality across the world made collective action against climate change difficult, according to the Human Development Index 2019 (HDI). The report by United Nations Development Programme, released earlier this month, highlighted the need to address inequality and climate crisis together.
India placed 129th in the index, just a notch above the previous year, among 189 countries.

On the other hand, the poor emitted much less than those earning more. Per capita carbon emission and ecological footprint were both higher among the rich.
The report pegged the world's average biocapacity per person at 1.7 hectares. The richest, with very high HDI, held more than eight hectares on an average.
According to the report, income inequality globally was about 25 per cent higher than it should have been without climate change.
The report added that inequality ‘within’ a country had increased and ‘between’ countries had decreased. This was relected in national carbon dioxide emissions. Globally, carbon dioxide emissions by the rich in most countries increased from around a third in 1998 to half in 2013.
According to the report, emissions get higher when income is concentrated at the top. When this concentration of income coincides with economic power, it opposes action on climate change.
The more inequality foments, more carbon dioxide emissions result. It further hinders solutions in term of technology transfers and influencing arguments which serve its interest.
The richest countries account for the lion’s share of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions. They are still among top polluters on a per capita basis and in terms of aggregate country emission today.
The same pattern of inequality plays out within countries, with households at the top of income distribution responsible for more carbon emissions per person than those at the bottom.
The report also points at a study which shows that since 2000, global warming has made tropical countries at least 5 per cent poorer than they otherwise would be.
Most of the world’s poorer countries are in the tropical zone and have become the first victims of global warming. An analysis of the last 40 years further substantiates the general pattern that temperature-related shocks hit poorer countries harder than richer countries.
The report said that richer countries would be negatively impacted in the long run. There would be some countries that might have enjoyed small benefits from temperature increase.
Climate change will reduce countries’ Gross Domestic Product in the long run. Its impact already extends to basic necessities like health and education.
The poor have to meet out-of-pocket expenses on health emergencies. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause some 250,000 additional deaths a year from malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea and heat stress. Vector-born diseases like malaria or dengue will likely expand.
Temperature change can impact food security as a warmer climate reduces agriculture production. Access to nutritious food will become difficult for the poor which will further increase health expenses and perpetuate inequality.
The report urges immediate and forceful action for mitigation of climate change. Further delays in forceful action will only compound mitigation cost over time.
The report estimated that a five-year delay implies a cost of $ 24 trillion and a 10-year delay implies a cost of $100 trillion.
The report says the Global Commission on Adaptation found that every $1 invested in adaptation could result in benefits worth $2-$10.
Profiles of polluters
If one looks at profiles of emitters, it becomes clear that emissions are lopsided and the main contributors are rich countries.
The top 10 per cent of emitters account for 45 per cent of global emission. This 10 per cent emitters are the richest countries including the United States and Canada (40 per cent), followed by the European Union (19 per cent) and China (10 per cent). India constitutes one per cent of this category.
The middle 40 per cent of emitters are led by China, which contributes 35 per cent, followed by the European Union (18 per cent). The contribution of India is five per cent.
The bottom 50 per cent emitters mostly constitutes developing countries led by India, which contributes 36 per cent in this category.


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Cut inequality to fight climate crisis.