The sharp edge of climate change
Zayan Masood, 11 yrs old, Bangladesh
The sharp edge of climate change is natural disaster. During the past week, delegates to COP-14 have learned that there are demonstrated strategies for disaster risk management and risk reduction that save lives and decrease losses. The diplomats sat through workshops about the human and financial cost of climate change-induced disaster, and about some of the policy responses that they should consider. Side events have presented case studies and detailed reports from a dozen international organizations – although the multiple parallel meetings.
The frequency of disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the European heat wave of 2003, which killed over 35,000 people, rainstorms in Mozambique, and king tides in Tuvalu has roughly doubled over the last twenty years, as has the frequency of smaller but still damaging events.
The prescription for disaster risk reduction includes measures that Californians should already be familiar with, notably careful management of land uses in risk zones. Early warning systems and educating vulnerable communities are two other programs that reduced the damage in flood-prone Bangladesh. The Munich Climate Insurance Initiative proposed managing climate risk with macro- and micro-insurance that would be available to countries – although it was also pointed out that
The emphasis here on climate catastrophes is almost startling. Although adaptation to climate change impacts is one of the five elements of the Bali Action Plan and it has always been part of the climate change Framework Convention, until COP-14 it was neglected and the emphasis has been on mitigation. Harlan Watson, the outgoing senior climate change negotiator for the United States, noted that environmental NGOs long resisted any discussion of adaptation on the principle that focusing on the impacts of climate change would decrease momentum for addressing its causes. Another explanation might be the sheer complexity and enormity of the issue. Along with a growing understanding of disaster management, the emphasis at COP-14 on preparing for the worst reflects, I believe, a new realism about the inevitability of serious harm.
