Accordingly, 48 million people in these countries suffer from acute hunger, in 2016 there were 21 million. According to the study “Hunger in a heating world” presented by the aid organization Oxfam, 18 million of them are even at risk of dying of hunger. Seven of the climate hotspots identified by Oxfam are in Africa.
“Climate change is no longer just a ticking time bomb, but one that is exploding right before our eyes,” said Gabriela Bucher, director general of the aid organization Oxfam International. The climate crisis brings with it more and more extreme weather conditions such as droughts, hurricanes and floods. Their number has quintupled in the past 50 years, and there are also more and more fatalities.
Gabriela Bucher, Director General of Oxfam International
African countries particularly affected
According to the study, the ten most severely affected climate crises are Somalia, Haiti, Djibouti, Kenya, Niger, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe. These countries have been hit the hardest by extreme weather events over the past two decades. “Millions of people who are already suffering from ongoing conflicts, rampant inequality and economic crises are now losing their livelihoods as a result of storm disasters, extreme climate events and the creeping changes,” said Bucher.
In Kenya, almost 2.5 million livestock died due to drought, and 2.4 million people there are now fighting hunger, according to the analysis. For Niger, the number of starving people was given as 2.6 million, almost eight times as many as in 2016. In Burkina Faso, more than 3.4 million people were struggling with extreme malnutrition this June, about 13 times as many as before six years.
According to Oxfam, the increase in extreme weather events means that many people with low incomes are less and less able to absorb the consequences. It is about countries that contribute the least to global CO2 emissions. Conversely, the G20 countries, which control 80 percent of the world economy, together are responsible for more than three quarters of global CO2 emissions.
Wealthy countries should help
Oxfam therefore urged more support from rich countries. The organization pointed out that the fossil energy companies based there alone had made average profits of 2.8 billion US dollars (about the same amount in euros) every day over the past 50 years. Their profits of less than 18 days would be enough “to meet all humanitarian needs in 2022,” which the United Nations put at $49 billion.
“We cannot tackle the climate crisis until we tackle the fundamental inequalities in our food and energy systems,” Bucher warned. The cost of this could be recovered by taxing polluting companies more heavily. “A single percent of fossil fuel companies’ average annual profits would free up $10 billion. That would fill most of the funding gap for the UN’s food security appeal.”
kle/as (afp, epd, kna, dpa)
