THE richest 1 per cent of people were responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the poorest half of the world’s population – 3.1 billion people – new research showed on Monday, as per reports.
Despite a sharp decrease in carbon emissions because of the pandemic, the world remains on pace to warm several degrees this century, threatening poor and developing nations with the full gamut of natural disasters and displacements. An analysis led by Oxfam showed that between 1990 and 2015, when annual emissions ballooned 60 per cent, rich nations were responsible for depleting nearly a third of Earth’s carbon budget.
The carbon budget is the limit of cumulative greenhouse gas emissions mankind may produce before rendering catastrophic temperature rises unavoidable. Just 63 million people – the “1 per cent” – took up 9 per cent of the carbon budget since 1990, research conducted for Oxfam by the Stockholm Environment Institute found. Highlighting an ever-widening “carbon inequality,” the Analysis said the growth rate of the 1 per cent’s emissions was three times that of the poorest half of humanity.”
Carbon dioxide emissions accumulate in the atmosphere, causing heating, and temperature rises of more than 1.5 per cent above pre-industrial levels would cause widespread harm to natural systems. That accumulation gives the world a finite carbon budget of how much carbon dioxide it is safe to produce, which scientists warn will be exhausted within a decade at current rates.
If left unchecked, in the next decade the carbon emissions of the world’s richest 10% would be enough to raise levels above the point likely to increase temperatures by 1.5C, even if the whole of the rest of the world cut their emissions to zero immediately. Scientists agree that the earth’s rising temperatures are fueling longer and hotter heat waves, more frequent droughts, heavier rainfall, and more powerful hurricanes.
For nations like Bangladesh which are only a few feet above water the worst climatic projections state that by 2050, with a projected 50 cm rise in sea level, Bangladesh may lose approximately 11% of its land, affecting an estimated 15 million people living in its low-lying coastal region. 28% of the population of Bangladesh lives on the coast, where the primary driver of displacement is tidal flooding caused by sea level rise.
So we are especially vulnerable to climate change. And it’s not just losing land but also the fact that the frequency of the storms may increase along with their intensity between now and 2050–so there are many other pitfalls along the way. IF we lose our land due to the activities of the rich nations we should be compensated in a proper manner by them –if they don’t stop their activities.
