Worry about climate change dwindles
Third edition of Ecological Threat Report released
As concerns about the impact of climate changed declines, Namibians say their top concerns relate to financial stability and crime.
Namibia is one of 52 countries facing extreme ecological threats and one of three countries that have experienced the highest decline in concern about the impact of climate change among its citizens.
This finding is contained in the third edition of the Ecological Threat Report (ETR).
According to the report, Singapore has recorded the highest decline in concern about climate change, followed by Namibia and Zambia. Instead, Namibians are more concerned about their country's financial stability, the pandemic, and the risk of crime and violence than the threat of climate change.
High risk areas
The 2022 ETR identified 27 hotspot countries that face catastrophic ecological threats while also having the lowest levels of societal resilience.
These countries are home to 768 million people and are mainly clustered in two regions: two-thirds are in sub-Saharan Africa, while countries in the Middle East and North Africa account for another 18.5% of hotspot countries.
The report also points out that sub-Saharan Africa faces the highest rates of food insecurity and that of the 52 sub-Saharan African countries, 37 recorded extremely high levels of food insecurity.
The report points out that food security is largely caused by irregular and intense rainfall as well as longer dry spells, which have increased pressure on agriculture, especially for subsistence farmers.
Changes unleashed
In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, extreme heat, rising levels of water stress, and flooding, along with sharp population increases, have already had negative consequences on food security.
"Firstly, many farmers have tiny land holdings, which means it does not take much for yields to decline to unsustainable levels. Secondly, rising temperatures can increase or shorten the length of the growing season, which is very significant for crops grown in arid or semi-arid environments where additional heat will evaporate water faster," the report states.
The issue of water stress is another red flag raised by the ETR, which highlights that a changing climate, poor infrastructure, and overuse of water would result in billions of people facing some form of water stress.
This is believed to create stress between people, communities, and states, while changing ecological conditions can worsen this stress as climate change impacts the availability of freshwater sources.
Implement changes
The report recommends that solutions to ecological problems require short-term costs with long-term benefits and that adapting to increasing ecological shocks requires sectoral reallocations.
However, it points out that as sectoral reallocations will negatively impact certain workers, businesses, and investors, there needs to be further analysis on their effect on these groups, for instance coastal farmers and coal miners.
It is further recommended that governments leverage private funding to address these threats, as many of the solutions to ecological problems can generate income, such as the provision of water.
Highlight benefits
The report underlines that when a business can clearly see how to garner a profitable return from ecologically positive investments, funds will naturally flow towards ecological solutions.
"To achieve systemic and sustainable outcomes, there needs to be a common understanding of how the system currently operates and what the desired change is. Currently, there is no agreed-upon holistic process for stakeholders to conduct a collective mapping system of operation."
The report analysed ecological threats in 228 independent states and territories and covered over 3 638 sub-national administrative districts, or 99.99% of the world's population, assessing threats relating to food risk, water risk, rapid population growth and natural disasters.
[email protected]
This finding is contained in the third edition of the Ecological Threat Report (ETR).
According to the report, Singapore has recorded the highest decline in concern about climate change, followed by Namibia and Zambia. Instead, Namibians are more concerned about their country's financial stability, the pandemic, and the risk of crime and violence than the threat of climate change.
High risk areas
The 2022 ETR identified 27 hotspot countries that face catastrophic ecological threats while also having the lowest levels of societal resilience.
These countries are home to 768 million people and are mainly clustered in two regions: two-thirds are in sub-Saharan Africa, while countries in the Middle East and North Africa account for another 18.5% of hotspot countries.
The report also points out that sub-Saharan Africa faces the highest rates of food insecurity and that of the 52 sub-Saharan African countries, 37 recorded extremely high levels of food insecurity.
The report points out that food security is largely caused by irregular and intense rainfall as well as longer dry spells, which have increased pressure on agriculture, especially for subsistence farmers.
Changes unleashed
In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, extreme heat, rising levels of water stress, and flooding, along with sharp population increases, have already had negative consequences on food security.
"Firstly, many farmers have tiny land holdings, which means it does not take much for yields to decline to unsustainable levels. Secondly, rising temperatures can increase or shorten the length of the growing season, which is very significant for crops grown in arid or semi-arid environments where additional heat will evaporate water faster," the report states.
The issue of water stress is another red flag raised by the ETR, which highlights that a changing climate, poor infrastructure, and overuse of water would result in billions of people facing some form of water stress.
This is believed to create stress between people, communities, and states, while changing ecological conditions can worsen this stress as climate change impacts the availability of freshwater sources.
Implement changes
The report recommends that solutions to ecological problems require short-term costs with long-term benefits and that adapting to increasing ecological shocks requires sectoral reallocations.
However, it points out that as sectoral reallocations will negatively impact certain workers, businesses, and investors, there needs to be further analysis on their effect on these groups, for instance coastal farmers and coal miners.
It is further recommended that governments leverage private funding to address these threats, as many of the solutions to ecological problems can generate income, such as the provision of water.
Highlight benefits
The report underlines that when a business can clearly see how to garner a profitable return from ecologically positive investments, funds will naturally flow towards ecological solutions.
"To achieve systemic and sustainable outcomes, there needs to be a common understanding of how the system currently operates and what the desired change is. Currently, there is no agreed-upon holistic process for stakeholders to conduct a collective mapping system of operation."
The report analysed ecological threats in 228 independent states and territories and covered over 3 638 sub-national administrative districts, or 99.99% of the world's population, assessing threats relating to food risk, water risk, rapid population growth and natural disasters.
[email protected]
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