From record droughts to catastrophic floods, the world’s worst climate hotspots are experiencing a surge in acute hunger, according to an Oxfam report, which is urging rich nations to drastically cut their emissions and compensate low-income countries.
The Hunger in a Warming World analysis found that acute hunger in the ten hardest-hit countries, defined by most UN weather appeals, rose 123 percent over six years.
“The impact of severe weather is already being felt,” Lia Lindsey, senior humanitarian policy adviser at Oxfam America, told AFP, adding the report was timed to prompt world leaders to act at the UN General Assembly push.
The countries – Somalia, Haiti, Djibouti, Kenya, Niger, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe – have been repeatedly hit by extreme weather conditions over the past two decades.
An estimated 48 million people in these countries suffer from acute hunger, defined as starvation resulting from a shock that threatens life and livelihood and based on World Food Program reports.
That number has increased from 21 million people in 2016; 18 million people are at risk of starvation.
The report recognizes the complexities surrounding the causes of global hunger, with conflict and economic disruption – including that caused by the Covid-19 pandemic – remaining key drivers.
“However, these new and worsening weather extremes are increasingly weakening the abilities of poor people, particularly in low-income countries, to stave off hunger and deal with the next shock,” it said.
Somalia, for example, is facing its worst drought on record, forcing a million people to flee their homes.
Climate change is also causing more frequent and intense heat waves and other extreme weather events, including floods that blanketed a third of Pakistan, washing away crops and topsoil and destroying agricultural infrastructure.
In Guatemala, weather conditions have contributed to the loss of nearly 80 percent of the corn crop and caused a “coffee crisis” in the region that has hit vulnerable communities hardest and forced many to emigrate to the United States.
– ‘Commitment, not charity’ –
Oxfam stressed that climate-related hunger is a “strong demonstration of global inequality,” with countries least responsible for the crisis suffering the most from its effects.
Polluting industrialized nations like those of the G20 are responsible for more than three-quarters of global CO2 emissions, while the 10 climate hotspots together account for just 0.13 percent.
“Leaders, particularly from rich, polluting countries, must deliver on their promises to reduce emissions,” Gabriela Bucher, chief executive of Oxfam International, said in a statement.
“They must pay for adaptation and loss and damage in low-income countries and immediately direct lifesaving funds to answer the UN call to help the hardest-hit countries.”
The United Nations Humanitarian Appeal for 2022 is $49 billion, which Oxfam says is less than 18 days of profit for fossil fuel companies when looking at average daily profits over the past 50 years.
Debt relief can also help governments free up resources, Bucher said, with rich countries having a moral responsibility to compensate poorer, hardest-hit countries.
“It’s an ethical obligation, not a charity,” she said.
