Millions worldwide are ensnared in a horrific reality of starvation, impoverishment, fear and sorrow due to global warming, with the situation particularly problematic for inhabitants of the Global South. Destructive heat waves, severe droughts, devastating cyclones, and catastrophic floods are becoming commonplace globally.
In Ethiopia, where I reside, projections by the World Bank suggest that there will be a mean temperature elevation of 1.8 degrees by 2050, surging to a disastrous 3.7 degrees by 2100, as a result of ongoing high emissions. The implications are dire.
Ethiopia ranks among the nations most susceptible to climate change. A single event such as the current drought in the Horn of Africa has already had calamitous consequences in Ethiopia, evidenced by over ten million pastoral and agro-pastoral communities losing their income sources, forcing them to abandon their homes. Climate change impacts, particularly droughts, are anticipated to cause an up to 10 per cent slump in the nation’s GDP by 2045.
This crisis is not of our creation. The lion’s share of the blame rests with the industrialised Global North and multinational corporations that persist in excessive fossil fuel consumption, exploitation, and proliferation.
Fossil fuels remain the principal driver of climate change, responsible for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Current coal, gas and oil fields in use could inflate the emissions greatly beyond the 1.5 degrees. Progressing any new fossil fuel extraction projects or infrastructure clashes with the Paris Agreement and the 1.5-degree climate objective.
The unsustainable food infrastructure sustained by industrial farming contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture, forestry, and other forms of land use, according to a report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), result in 13-21% of global emissions. Additionally, the Food and Agriculture Organisation posits that 11% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to deforestation, with the majority happening in the world’s tropical areas, primarily in the Global South.
Scientists reported in 2024 that the average global temperature had consistently been 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial times for a whole year. The previous year, 2023, registered as the hottest year since records started, with record-high temperatures further worsened by human-induced climate change and the El Niño effect.
The trend of setting new temperature records each month in 2024’s first half hints at the high likelihood of 2024 exceeding 2023 and becoming the hottest year ever recorded. This spike in global temperatures is directly leading to severe humanitarian crises. Climate change-induced extreme weather events resulted in more than 20 million displaced individuals globally in 2023, with a whopping 80% originating from the Global South.
The IPCC cautions that a global temperature increase of 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels could potentially make extreme heatwaves 37% more frequent, placing countless additional lives in danger. By 2050, the World Food Programme predicts that climate change could plunge an extra 122 million people into extreme poverty, mostly in Africa and South Asia.
The climate crisis also presents a substantial gender disparity. Women are 14 times more prone to losing their lives in climate-related catastrophes than men, as reported by UN Women. Moreover, 80% of individuals displaced by these disasters are women. As water sources dwindle, it is typically girls and women who are tasked with walking further distances to collect water. When crop production diminishes, women are often the ones to miss meals. Societal repercussions include a rise in early marriages, increased girls’ school dropout rates, and heightened gender-based violence.
As an African woman, mother, and leader, I have direct experience of the heartbreak human-induced climate change induces on communities in the Global South. Take, for example, Borana, one of Ethiopia’s southeast regions that’s most impacted, where women, even those expecting, have to journey for18km just to fetch water.
The financial aspect is central to our current climate emergency. Excessive financial investment is stimulating climate change, while limited funds are allocated to address climate-related problems. Financial processes focused on exploitation further push economies into a spiral of climate damage, thus intensifying inequality.
Many leading global private banks knowingly channel large sums of money into the expansion of fossil fuels. This significant contribution directly propels us towards a scenario of climate crisis, causing extreme local pollution, especially in African regions.
A 2023 study by ActionAid highlighted that financial support from banks for the fossil fuel sector in the 134 Global South countries touched around $3.2 trillion, equivalent to €2.9 trillion, from 2016 onwards post the adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Over this same timeframe, these banks financed the largest industrial agricultural firms of the Global South to the tune of $370 billion.
Among these, HSBC tops the list as the main European financier for fossil fuels and agribusiness in the Global South. Barclays is the most substantial European bank financing fossil fuels globally, while Citibank ranks as the prime US financier for fossil fuels in the Global South.
The enormous finance flowing into fossil fuels and industrial farming in the Global South leads to land acquisition, deforestation, pollution of water and soil and occupational loss. These effects further heighten the already existing injustices faced by communities suffering from climatic effects such as droughts, floods, and cyclones.
Ireland too, is implicated. Findings from ActionAid Ireland indicates that €5.7 billion are streamed towards damaging fossil fuels and agribusiness from Ireland to the Global South via foreign direct investment, thanks to many of the world’s largest investment companies acting on behalf of major oil and gas firms.
Despite their capability to halt their financial support, banks and investors seem unwilling. The responsibility lies thus with governments and bodies such as the European Union to facilitate a shift from destructive corporate entities to limit severe climate change. We need to halt the finance that is exacerbating the climate crisis and damaging the planet. As it stands, the global financial system is structured to exacerbate, rather than alleviate, climate change, susceptibility and social inequality.
The push for a more significant political, financial, and legislative backing for the shift from activities that damage the climate is crucial for countries such as ours. The current stance of most governments of allocating a higher proportion of public funds for subsidies or tax relief to fossil fuels and large-scale farming companies rather than climate-friendly initiatives is detrimental to both the environment and people. There’s an urgent need to repurpose these funds to facilitate changes that address climate issues and social disparity.
The affluent nations in the Global North, having carried out industrialisation and pollution activities for over a century, are largely accountable for the emission accumulation in the atmosphere that exacerbates global warming. Therefore, it’s crucial and justified that these prosperous nations take immediate and decisive climate action by decarbonising and moving away from large-scale farming as well as allocating a reasonable share of climate finance to the Global South. It is also advantageous for the Global South to eschew these obsolete and damaging industries, switching to low-emissions development paths swiftly.
Regarding climate disasters, women are 14 times more at risk of death compared to men, with 80% of people displaced by such disasters being women. This becomes more poignant when water sources are depleted, forcing women and girls to travel farther for water.
Critically, Africa’s contribution to worldwide carbon emissions is minimal, despite housing 17% of the global population. It accounts for less than 4% of global emissions—the lowest among all global regions. Excluding South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa has only contributed to 0.6% of global CO2 emissions in the past two centuries. In this context, Ethiopia’s contribution of 0.2% stands in stark contrast to Ireland’s contribution of 0.13% of global emissions.
The upcoming COP29 climate negotiations are a litmus test of the dedication of rich nations towards preserving a habitable earth. The poorest nations, already feeling the brunt of global warming, have only received a meagre and reluctant support from the wealthy polluting nations concerning Loss and Damage. The pertinent query hence remains—will the Global North rise to the occasion this year by substantially bolstering its climate goals and owning up for its historical deeds?
It’s high time we take immediate action. Women across Africa and the rest of the globe should no longer have to unfairly face the impact of a predicament they are not responsible for. The demand for climate justice isn’t merely pressing; it’s literally a question of existence.
Tinebeb Berhane holds the position of country director for ActionAid Ethiopia. As an international community, ActionAid labours alongside over 41 million individuals residing in over 71 of the globe’s most impoverished nations, with the ambition to achieve a just, equitable and sustainable world.