Haiti after Hurricane Matthew.
Image - Reuters
Natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and droughts, generate a staggering number of 26 million poor every year. This was revealed by the World Bank during the climate conference (COP22).
Overall, each year there are losses of more than half a billion dollars due to these phenomena if the impact on the well-being of people who do not have sufficient financial resources for having lost everything or almost everything is included. That figure increases by 60% the estimates of the impact of disasters made to date by the UN, which was of the order of 300.000 million dollars.
When the impact of hurricanes, earthquakes or droughts was counted, the poorest are also those who suffer the most: they lose 11% of their material possessions, but 47% of their well-being. An example is Hurricane Matthew, which hit Haiti and the United States. In the North American country, material losses amounted to about 7.000 million, while in the poorest they were 2.000 million.
If only material losses are counted, the richest countries will always win, as the World Bank warned. Taking into account the impact on the well-being of people with fewer resources, Aid programs or funding can be adjusted to help those most in need and thus prevent more people from dying as a result of natural disasters.
Droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other phenomena will continue to happen forever, and may become more dangerous as a result of climate change. Therefore, we have to adapt as best we can and help those who do not have the necessary resources to protect themselves.
The situation is more complicated today, since the new president of the United States, Donald Trump, is skeptical of climate change and is willing to remove his country from the Paris Agreement. If it does, according to a Lux Research research, its energy policies could lead to an increase in CO2 emissions from 3.400 billion tons over the next eight years, versus Obama's commitment to cut emissions by 30%.
We will see what happens.
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