Since climate change affects everything from where someone can live to their access to healthcare, millions could be pushed deeper into poverty as environmental conditions worsen. Global temperatures and sea levels rise, as the oceans become more acidic and rainfall patterns change, people in poverty are hit the hardest.

This is especially true for poor people in low-income countries. Just as climate change increases inequalities within a country, it also widens the gap between nations because some are more at risk than others. And poor countries have fewer resources to tackle the problem.

Green apartheid

Over the past decade, the wildlife economy in southern Africa has emerged as a proposed “new” solution to protect biodiversity and grow the economy.

In fact it follows a long history of market-based mechanisms to achieve conservation we call ‘fortress’conservation’. We see local people evicted from their land for (luxury) nature-based tourism. Newer ways to commodify nature include wildlife estates and timeshare agreements in private reserves.

In the old days Wildlife and Conservation organisations such as WESSA, the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, were exclusively concerned with protecting the ‘great white hunters’ hunting and shooting rights.

The current model is still based on the idea that privatisation and commodification of wildlife is moral, inclusive and environmentally sustainable. But it’s not – especially against the background of highly uneven socio-economic and racial inequalities all over southern Africa.

WESSA receives generous international funding for ‘Blue Flag Beaches’.

It provides suitable infrastructure and staffing to ‘police’ these pristine, ex-apartheid beaches that for generations excluded poor – and particularly- non white races.

Yet, WESSA Friends Groups and communities living next door to these amenities recieve precious little from the organisation that is supposed to be protecting their environment and empowering them to self-determined actions.

The wildlife economy is unsustainable and strengthens injustices in three particular ways.

First, it is environmentally unsustainable because of its dependence on fossil fuels. Fossil fuel companies power the flights and other transport that bring people to wildlife spaces.

Second, the wildlife economy is socially unsustainable. Ownership of land and access to natural resources remains highly unequal along racial lines.

These inequalities create what we call a “new green apartheid”. For example, some communities of Black people in and near conservation areas barely have enough water for survival. Meanwhile, mostly white tourists and estate inhabitants receive water from boreholes to enjoy wildlife, swimming pools, or even golf courses.

Third, the wildlife economy approach tends to ignore local realities while advancing biodiversity conservation goals.

“Climate change will make the gap even wider between those who have resources and those who don’t,” Eliot Levine, director of the environment technical support Unit at Mercy Corps, told Global Citizen.

“We’re already seeing climate change impacts worldwide, and the latest IPCC reports clearly show that we’re quickly heading towards experiencing them on a larger scale and more severely than we thought before,” he added.

“The world’s poorest communities often live on the most fragile land, and they are often left out politically, socially, and economically, making them especially vulnerable to climate change impacts,” Christina Chan, director of the World Resources Institute’s Climate Resilience Practice, told Global Citizen. “More frequent and intense storms, flooding, drought, and changes in rainfall patterns are already affecting these communities, making it hard for them to earn a decent living.”

Read more about Southern Africa’s flawed conservation models here.

Food and Water Scarcity

Ethiopia has been experiencing unprecedented droughts, leading to water scarcity and food insecurity for millions.

For the first time in years, global hunger rose in 2019. The sharpest increase was in sub-Saharan Africa, where severe droughts have ruined crops. In Zimbabwe, where over 7 million need food aid, the 2019 harvest was half of the previous year’s, and this year’s harvest is expected to be similarly poor. In Southern Africa alone, more than 45 million face food shortages.

Crop yields vary yearly for many reasons — lack of resources and technology, economic downturns, conflicts, and political issues. But climate change is particularly disruptive, threatening up to half a billion people with poverty and food insecurity. Droughts have become extremely long in sub-Saharan Africa, causing widespread crop failures, cattle deaths, food shortages, and poverty.

Similar agricultural disruptions are happening worldwide, with comparable economic effects. Agricultural output could drop by up to 30% in the coming years, threatening the livelihoods of 500 million small-scale farmers when food demand is expected to rise by up to 98% by 2050.

“Climate change’s impact on farmers’ ability to produce food is enormous and growing rapidly,” Levine said. “It’s also affecting their ability to grow nutritionally balanced foods. This was already challenging without climate change, and now there’s this added complexity.”

Droughts worsened by climate change are putting immense pressure on global freshwater supplies. Already, 1 in 4 people worldwide face severe water shortages. By 2050, up to 50% of people could face water scarcity.

Recently, major cities like São Paulo and Cape Town have nearly run out of water, giving a glimpse into a future where strict water rationing becomes normal. In Cape Town, water police were assigned to patrol neighbourhoods and crack down on excessive water use. Now, Cape Town has the opposite problem this year. Severe storms are causing flooding that forces evacuations and pollutes clean water supplies.

Water shortages also threaten regional security in some parts of the world. The war in Syria has been partly attributed to a drought that forced rural workers to move to cities seeking opportunities. The resulting lack of jobs led to widespread protests and unrest that eventually helped trigger the war.

“We already see tense discussions about water between nations with existing policies and processes,” Levine said. “What happens when these discussions intensify in places without international water agreements? How do we ensure fair water distribution when there aren’t even domestic rules, let alone international agreements?”

Air Pollution

Wildfires rage under smoke plumes on Table Mountain, Cape Town. Trevor Davies

The regular wildfires in Cape Town have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. But escaping the flames didn’t ensure safety. Those who managed to flee are still affected by the intense pollution released into the air.

Climate change is intensifying forest fires, which are becoming more frequent and severe, affecting millions of people’s health annually. Air pollution from various sources, including factories and vehicles, leads to an estimated 8.79 million premature deaths each year.

The impact of air pollution is particularly harsh on impoverished communities. These people often live in crowded areas near industrial sites and can’t afford air purifiers or trips away when air quality worsens. Nearly 92% of pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Forest fires are increasingly undoing progress made in air quality. For instance, the 2019 Amazon rainforest fires in Brazil made the air harmful for children, according to the World Health Organization.

Climate change affects health in other ways too. Deadly heatwaves are becoming more common globally, creating dangerous conditions even for healthy individuals. While everyone feels these heatwaves, they primarily threaten poor people who can’t afford air conditioning or protection from water shortages.

Mahir Ilgaz, associate director of advocacy and campaigns at 350.org, stated, “After a certain point, adapting to climate change becomes nearly impossible. In places like Mumbai, temperatures are quickly approaching levels unsuitable for human habitation.”

Rising temperatures are also expanding the range of disease-carrying pests like mosquitoes. These insects spread life-threatening illnesses such as malaria, which have historically affected poor communities. Water- and food-borne diseases are also increasing due to more frequent flooding from extreme rainfall, causing pollution in waterways and farmland.

The growing health issues linked to climate change are worsened by the lack of healthcare worldwide, especially in poor areas. According to the United Nations (UN), only about 1 in 5 countries have a healthcare plan for dealing with climate change. Meanwhile, over half the global population lacks reliable access to healthcare, and nearly 100 million people fall into poverty each year due to health issues, as reported by the World Bank.

Threatened Livelihoods

Small-scale farmers rely on their crops for both food and income. When climate change-related events like droughts or natural disasters force them off their land, they often sink deeper into poverty. In wealthy countries, insurance helps farmers cope with poor harvests and recover from disasters quickly. However, farmers in low-income countries often lack this support. “For them, recovery is a longer, harder, and more dangerous process,” Levine explained.

The same applies to small-scale fisheries in developing countries who depend on their daily catch. Climate change is warming oceans faster than land environments, disrupting marine ecosystems and causing fish populations to move. This makes it harder for fishers to meet their quotas.

Livelihoods tied to subsistence – like farming and fishing in developing countries – are threatened by climate change. People in these roles often lack resources to become climate-resilient. While farming and fishing are just two professions, they represent hundreds of millions of people worldwide. In many countries, agriculture drives the economy, with fishing also being a major source of commerce.

The economic shocks from climate change will be disruptive. Poor families will struggle with rising food and water costs due to droughts and natural disasters, according to the World Bank.

Climate change is also costly for developing countries that must redirect budgets to address environmental crises. In 2019, countries collectively spent £150 billion on climate change-related disasters, not including funds for updating infrastructure and building climate resilience. Money spent on climate change means less for healthcare, education, job training, and other poverty reduction initiatives.

The Way Forward

What links Leonardo DiCaprio, Pope Francis, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights?

They’ve all used their voices to highlight how poverty and climate change are connected—and said we can’t fix one without dealing with the other.

Pope Francis has called the world’s failure to act on climate change “a cruel act of injustice towards the poor,” while DiCaprio wisely noted that “the environment and the struggle for the world’s poor are closely linked.” Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur, warned in 2019 that a “climate apartheid” is just around the corner.

Climate change looms over all nations, bringing severe droughts, powerful storms, and scorching heat waves. But these effects aren’t felt equally around the world. They pose the biggest threat to the most vulnerable people across the globe.

The fights against climate change and poverty are interconnected. Investments to mitigate or adapt to climate change will inevitably reduce poverty, and investments to reduce poverty will better protect people against the growing environmental crisis.

Countries can provide farmers with hardier and more nutritious seeds, while offering access to loans, grants, markets, technologies, and data to boost harvests, according to the WRI. They can invest in reforestation and coastline restoration projects to improve water security, protect communities from natural disasters, and create economic opportunities.

First and foremost, nations can cut greenhouse gas emissions and shift to clean energy economies to stop climate change from worsening. Moving from fossil fuels to clean energy could boost the global economy by £20 trillion by 2030.

“It’s vital to break down the support for the fossil fuel industry,” Ilgaz noted. “This takes many forms — from pulling out investments to cutting aid for infrastructure projects. We should start by keeping fossil fuels in the ground.”

Groups like the Green Climate Fund and the International Fund for Agricultural Development are working to both ready communities for growing climate risks and help them thrive in changing climates.

Ilgaz said countries need to create fair transition plans to help workers in fossil fuel-dependent industries find new jobs and stability. These plans must also rethink how humans interact with nature and use natural resources, he added.

“Climate change isn’t a standalone issue, it’s tied to a bigger environmental crisis we’re seeing more often these days,” Ilgaz said.

Importantly, these efforts must involve input from local people. Inflation and crop scarcities hit basic commodity prices. Trevor Davies

“While communities face the brunt of climate change impacts, they rarely have a real say in choosing, deciding on, and carrying out the actions that affect them most,” said Chan from WRI. “In terms of what we can do, perhaps nothing is more crucial than increasing local funding for town councils, community groups, and others working on the ground to spot, prioritise, put in place, and check climate adaptation solutions.”

Levine stressed that a lack of money is the main thing stopping climate resilience programmes from taking off in vulnerable areas.

“We could talk about water security, early warning systems, and smart farming, but none of these will happen if we don’t increase funding,” he said. “If we can’t get money to where it’s needed, if we can’t put plans into action, then the whole discussion is pointless.”

See also this article: https://samso.africa/historic-black-community-takes-on-elon-musk-over-environmental-racism/

Historic Black Community Takes On Elon Musk Over Environmental Racism