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Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Revealed: The true cost of climate crisis for world's poorest countries
Extreme weather fuelled by the climate crisis has cost some of the world's poorest countries $156 billion (£116bn) across the past two decades, the Independent can reveal. Intense drought, flooding, cyclones and more have impacted 364 million people and caused more than 42,000 deaths since 2000– 17,000 of which can be directly attributed to climate change. The nations hardest hit are Somalia, Haiti and Uganda. Researchers at ODI Global, an international think tank, also found the climate crisis had contributed to billions of dollars worth of agricultural losses, with farmers across Somalia and Ethiopia forced to abandon their livelihoods amid growing food scarcity, saying the stark findings should serve as a 'wake-up call for global policymakers'. "If the UK suffered tens of billions of pounds worth of damage caused by other countries' actions, our government and the public would rightfully be shouting from the rooftops about the injustice,' Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth told The Independent. "Yet this is the reality for many countries on the frontlines of climate breakdown that have contributed virtually nothing to global emissions'. The figures come after Donald Trump slashed US aid spending, with the UK also planning on cutting billions of pounds in funding, with The Independent reporting on the devastating impact for countries most affected by the climate crisis thanks to losing support for food and disaster prevention. 'It's deeply unjust that those who have done the least to contribute to the climate crisis are paying most dearly for it – the UK has a central role to play in righting that injustice,' Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party, said. 'While governments like ours delay, countries like Somalia and Ethiopia, and small island nations - some of the world's poorest countries - are paying the price.' 'The government's recent cuts to the foreign aid budget are particularly disturbing in this context, with so many across the world relying on essential humanitarian aid as a result of extreme weather caused by the climate crisis,' added Ms Denyer. The study of 53 low-income countries includes 36 small-island developing states in the Caribbean, Pacific and the Atlantic, and 17 countries in the Sahel and the Greater Horn of Africa. Since the year 2000, these countries suffered $395 billion in losses and damages from extreme weather events, $156bn of which can be attributed to the climate crisis. 'Every year, we see more devastation from the worsening effects of climate change,' said Emily Wilkinson, principal research fellow at ODI Global. 'Wealthier nations urgently need to scale up climate finance and also make sure it reaches the right places. For remote or unstable places [facing conflict or other vulnerabilities], such as those featured in the study, getting projects off the ground might be harder, but the benefits will also be more keenly felt by affected populations.' In 2023, the Cop28 climate summit agreed to the creation of the Loss and Damage Fund, which would provide financial support for some destruction caused by climate change. But wealthy, higher polluting countries pledged a total of $768 million to the fund; a fraction of the financial losses that vulnerable countries face, and will continue to face. It was agreed this year that the fund will pay out $250 million of this sum until the end of 2026. To calculate the proportion of losses and damages resulting from climate change, ODI Global's research uses climate mapping studies combined with figures from EM-DAT, the international database covering 26,000 mass disasters worldwide, and United Nations disaster reports. Tropical cyclones – often referred to as hurricanes or typhoons – and flooding have caused the most damage in small island developing states like the Bahamas, which has lost at least $4 billion from climate-attributed events. Scientists believe tropical cyclones are becoming more intense thanks to the climate crisis, due to warmer seas and stronger winds heightening their impact. Meanwhile, rising sea levels from melting ice caps will contribute to increased flooding of low-elevation islands. Severe droughts and deadly flooding have ravaged the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, severely impacting many communities that rely on agriculture. The ODI Global report found that climate change contributed to at least $11.5 billion in losses and damages to livestock and crops in these countries— causing lasting harm to livelihoods and food supplies in agrarian areas, with already high poverty rates. Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia have suffered tens of billions of dollars in losses between them, but Somalia has suffered worst of all. Devastating droughts and subsequent floods have led to $151bn in loss and damages; $75 billion of which ODI Global estimates is attributable to climate change. Somalia's extended droughts have been exacerbated by the climate crisis, researchers have found, contributing to lower rainfall, warmer air temperatures, and higher evapotranspiration – or the combined processes that move water from the Earth's surface into the atmosphere. These droughts in recent years have caused widespread crop failures and livestock losses, plunging many farmers and herders into poverty Nearly half of Somalia's eight million-strong population have also faced food insecurity. As The Independent has reported, Somalia is facing drought and low crop yields once again; but this time, charities are worried that aid cuts will limit their ability to respond to food shortages. Many of the nations included in the ODI Global study have smaller economies, increasing the impact of climate crisis-related losses. On the Caribbean island of Dominica, such damage has cost nearly a tenth (9.25 per cent) of gross domestic product (GDP) each year on average over the last two decades. Haiti, Kenya and Grenada are among the nations already facing substantial losses, more than two per cent of their GDP per year, thanks to climate change. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes can increase that number substantially, given the damge that can do quickly. This means that poorer nations, some of whom are facing further strain from regional conflicts, are disproportionately taking the brunt of climate-related destruction. These effects will only continue to get worse, warn ODI Global's researchers; estimating at least a further $235 billion in these countries from climate-related damages if the planet warms by 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. According to climate scientists at Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), each of the past 10 years (2015–2024) was one of the 10 warmest years on record. The monthly global average temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for 11 months of the year. "The escalating costs from climate change will have a serious toll on economic growth and living standards, and a wider risk of geopolitical stability in some regions,' said Ms Wilkinson, a research fellow at ODI Global. 'Climate change contributing to a poorer, more dangerous, future is bad for everyone but we are not too late to change course.' In the wake of extreme weather events, communities are heavily reliant on aid as people are displaced from their homes and access to food and infrastructure are disrupted. In 2023 alone, the countries in this study received some £7.5 billion in aid from the US and UK, with millions of people relying on life-saving food assistance. But with the total dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and UK cuts threatening access to aid for some 55 million people, this support is drying up; but the consequences of climate change are worsening. In Ethiopia, food shortages in the Northern region have led to starvation. But a funding gap of $222 million has already forced the World Food Program to suspend malnutrition treatment for 650,000 women and children. Just this week, the government refused to reconsider its cuts to aid spending, and could not commit to funding for nutrition, the International Development Committee reported. A spokesperson for the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: 'Demands for action from the world's most vulnerable and the requirements for delivering security for British citizens are fundamentally aligned. 'That is why we are supporting those who are experiencing the worst impacts of the climate crisis and working together with partners to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement." This article was produced as part of The Independent's Rethinking Global Aid project
The Independent
25-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Revealed: The true cost of climate crisis for world's poorest countries
Extreme weather fuelled by the climate crisis has cost some of the world's poorest countries $156 billion (£116bn) across the past two decades, the Independent can reveal. Intense drought, flooding, cyclones and more have impacted 364 million people and caused more than 42,000 deaths since 2000– 17,000 of which can be directly attributed to climate change. The nations hardest hit are Somalia, Haiti and Uganda. Researchers at ODI Global, an international think tank, also found the climate crisis had contributed to billions of dollars worth of agricultural losses, with farmers across Somalia and Ethiopia forced to abandon their livelihoods amid growing food scarcity, saying the stark findings should serve as a 'wake-up call for global policymakers'. "If the UK suffered tens of billions of pounds worth of damage caused by other countries' actions, our government and the public would rightfully be shouting from the rooftops about the injustice,' Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth told The Independent. "Yet this is the reality for many countries on the frontlines of climate breakdown that have contributed virtually nothing to global emissions'. The figures come after Donald Trump slashed US aid spending, with the UK also planning on cutting billions of pounds in funding, with The Independent reporting on the devastating impact for countries most affected by the climate crisis thanks to losing support for food and disaster prevention. 'It's deeply unjust that those who have done the least to contribute to the climate crisis are paying most dearly for it – the UK has a central role to play in righting that injustice,' Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party, said. 'While governments like ours delay, countries like Somalia and Ethiopia, and small island nations - some of the world's poorest countries - are paying the price.' 'The government's recent cuts to the foreign aid budget are particularly disturbing in this context, with so many across the world relying on essential humanitarian aid as a result of extreme weather caused by the climate crisis,' added Ms Denyer. 'Every year we see more devastation' The study of 53 low-income countries includes 36 small-island developing states in the Caribbean, Pacific and the Atlantic, and 17 countries in the Sahel and the Greater Horn of Africa. Since the year 2000, these countries suffered $395 billion in losses and damages from extreme weather events, $156bn of which can be attributed to the climate crisis. 'Every year, we see more devastation from the worsening effects of climate change,' said Emily Wilkinson, principal research fellow at ODI Global. ' Wealthier nations urgently need to scale up climate finance and also make sure it reaches the right places. For remote or unstable places [facing conflict or other vulnerabilities], such as those featured in the study, getting projects off the ground might be harder, but the benefits will also be more keenly felt by affected populations.' In 2023, the Cop28 climate summit agreed to the creation of the Loss and Damage Fund, which would provide financial support for some destruction caused by climate change. But wealthy, higher polluting countries pledged a total of $768 million to the fund; a fraction of the financial losses that vulnerable countries face, and will continue to face. It was agreed this year that the fund will pay out $250 million of this sum until the end of 2026. Hurricanes, droughts and flooding To calculate the proportion of losses and damages resulting from climate change, ODI Global's research uses climate mapping studies combined with figures from EM-DAT, the international database covering 26,000 mass disasters worldwide, and United Nations disaster reports. Tropical cyclones – often referred to as hurricanes or typhoons – and flooding have caused the most damage in small island developing states like the Bahamas, which has lost at least $4 billion from climate-attributed events. Scientists believe tropical cyclones are becoming more intense thanks to the climate crisis, due to warmer seas and stronger winds heightening their impact. Meanwhile, rising sea levels from melting ice caps will contribute to increased flooding of low-elevation islands. Severe droughts and deadly flooding have ravaged the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, severely impacting many communities that rely on agriculture. The ODI Global report found that climate change contributed to at least $11.5 billion in losses and damages to livestock and crops in these countries— causing lasting harm to livelihoods and food supplies in agrarian areas, with already high poverty rates. Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia have suffered tens of billions of dollars in losses between them, but Somalia has suffered worst of all. Devastating droughts and subsequent floods have led to $151bn in loss and damages; $75 billion of which ODI Global estimates is attributable to climate change. Somalia's extended droughts have been exacerbated by the climate crisis, researchers have found, contributing to lower rainfall, warmer air temperatures, and higher evapotranspiration – or the combined processes that move water from the Earth's surface into the atmosphere. These droughts in recent years have caused widespread crop failures and livestock losses, plunging many farmers and herders into poverty Nearly half of Somalia's eight million-strong population have also faced food insecurity. As The Independent has reported, Somalia is facing drought and low crop yields once again; but this time, charities are worried that aid cuts will limit their ability to respond to food shortages. Many of the nations included in the ODI Global study have smaller economies, increasing the impact of climate crisis-related losses. On the Caribbean island of Dominica, such damage has cost nearly a tenth (9.25 per cent) of gross domestic product (GDP) each year on average over the last two decades. Haiti, Kenya and Grenada are among the nations already facing substantial losses, more than two per cent of their GDP per year, thanks to climate change. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes can increase that number substantially, given the damge that can do quickly. This means that poorer nations, some of whom are facing further strain from regional conflicts, are disproportionately taking the brunt of climate-related destruction. These effects will only continue to get worse, warn ODI Global's researchers; estimating at least a further $235 billion in these countries from climate-related damages if the planet warms by 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. According to climate scientists at Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), each of the past 10 years (2015–2024) was one of the 10 warmest years on record. The monthly global average temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for 11 months of the year. "The escalating costs from climate change will have a serious toll on economic growth and living standards, and a wider risk of geopolitical stability in some regions,' said Ms Wilkinson, a research fellow at ODI Global. 'Climate change contributing to a poorer, more dangerous, future is bad for everyone but we are not too late to change course.' Disruptions to aid increase risk of famine and poverty In the wake of extreme weather events, communities are heavily reliant on aid as people are displaced from their homes and access to food and infrastructure are disrupted. In 2023 alone, the countries in this study received some £7.5 billion in aid from the US and UK, with millions of people relying on life-saving food assistance. But with the total dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and UK cuts threatening access to aid for some 55 million people, this support is drying up; but the consequences of climate change are worsening. In Ethiopia, food shortages in the Northern region have led to starvation. But a funding gap of $222 million has already forced the World Food Program to suspend malnutrition treatment for 650,000 women and children. Just this week, the government refused to reconsider its cuts to aid spending, and could not commit to funding for nutrition, the International Development Committee reported. A spokesperson for the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: 'Demands for action from the world's most vulnerable and the requirements for delivering security for British citizens are fundamentally aligned. 'That is why we are supporting those who are experiencing the worst impacts of the climate crisis and working together with partners to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement."
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How a toxic seaweed choking Caribbean beaches could become a valuable resource
Each year, between March and October, large amounts of brown seaweed called sargassum wash up on the shores of Caribbean islands – choking beaches, damaging marine life and threatening tourism and public health. But a number of local entrepreneurs are hoping the seaweed could create an economic opportunity. From the coast of west Africa to the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, climate change is warming the temperature of the ocean. Seas are also becoming more acidic as water absorbs carbon dioxide. This all results in more intense growth of sargassum in the tropical Atlantic. Small Caribbean nations are among the hardest hit. With 20 million tonnes of this seaweed washing up on the beaches in 2024, sargassum is fuelling an economic and public health crisis. The piles of noxious seaweed on the Caribbean islands' white sandy beaches are putting off visitors to these islands and probably dampening tourism revenues. Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK's latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences. The fishing sector is also suffering, with blooms of seaweed getting caught up in fishing nets, often ripping them due to the weight of the seaweed. This makes it hard for fishers to catch fish and make a living. The sheer volume of sargassum left to decompose on land produces toxic fumes that have forced people on islands like Guadeloupe to leave their homes. These toxic fumes have been linked to serious health issues including respiratory infections, sleep apnoea and even preeclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy). The sargassum problem is just one of many slow-onset events that are being exacerbated by climate change. But gradual changes get much less attention or resources to address the consequences than, say, alarming wildfires or flash floods. Slow-onset events are also much harder to quantify than climate-change-induced extreme weather, such as worsening hurricanes or floods. Our team at ODI Global, a thinktank, recently published a study that estimated the cost of these at US$2,000 (£1,500) per person. Calculating the tourism lost each year due to seaweed inundation is trickier. Read more: Despite these challenges, through small-scale, locally developed solutions, as well as government policies that support small businesses including helping them access climate finance, entrepreneurs can find sustainable solutions to help their populations thrive in an era of climate change. Legena Henry, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, uses sargassum to produce a biofuel that can power cars. Johanan Dujon, the founder and chief executive of St. Lucia-based Algas Organics sells plant tonics made from sargassum and is trialling methods to convert sargassum into paper. Meanwhile, other innovations are helping to minimise the impacts of sargassum in the region. Andrés León, founder of SOS Carbon, a spin-off organisation from the mechanical engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has designed a boat-based harvester to collect sargassum at sea to stop it from beaching and causing damage onshore. Some islands, such as Jamaica, are using early warning systems, typically used to predict hurricanes, to predict the ocean currents that might bring a bumper arrival of the seaweed to their shores. This could give fishers up to 30 days notice of just how bad the inundation will be. But while small businesses are emerging, turning them into larger enterprises across the region remains difficult. As usual, small island nations struggle to get funding because investors think the projects are too small and won't make enough money. As Legena Henry recently told us on the Small Island Big Picture podcast, spending a few million dollars (as opposed to a few hundred million dollars) can feel administratively cumbersome for funders as they often have limited administrative capacity and large sums of money to manage. Another issue is ensuring the benefits from any sargassum solutions flow into the affected Caribbean islands to support local growth and economic development. Several opportunities exist for small island nations to generate some income from sargassum. They could, for example, sell licences to permit companies to harvest sargassum within their exclusive economic zones, which can stretch around many islands for hundreds of nautical miles. They can also sell licences to businesses trialling or operating new sargassum technologies within their exclusive economic zones — for example, SOS Carbon has a patent pending for technology designed to sink sargassum to the seabed to store carbon. Will sargassum continue to be a nuisance, or could it be an important renewable natural resource? It's not yet clear. Ideally, as with other renewable natural resources in developing countries, small island nations that own the sargassum need to find ways to extract a fair share of the value from that ownership, as well as selling to external companies that come in, remove it and profit from it. With tax incentives and low-cost finance for domestic innovators, small islands can manage and sell sargassum and then use the proceeds to develop climate resilience measures. Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation's environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who've subscribed so far. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Emma Tompkins received funding for work on sargassum from the Economic and Social Research Council GCRF (Grant number: ES/T002964/1) Emily Wilkinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
South China Morning Post
11-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
More Chinese energy investments in Africa are going to renewables, report finds
China is increasingly channelling its energy investments in Africa into renewable projects , with solar and wind power now accounting for 59 per cent of its energy projects on the continent, according to a report by UK-based think tank ODI Global. Advertisement The report found one-fifth of China's overall energy sector and also a fifth of renewable energy investment and construction activity had taken place in Africa, amounting to US$66 billion between 2010 and 2024. The continent has also become a key market for Chinese solar and wind technology, with exports surging 153 per cent from 2020 to 2024. That growth is being fuelled by Africa's rising energy demand and China's dominance in solar panel production, where it manufactures over 80 per cent of the global supply. The findings align with global trends showing China's energy investment shifting from fossil fuels to renewables. In 2021, China committed to halting the funding of new coal-fired power plants overseas. The ODI Global study noted that 'African economies represent a smaller, but growing destination for Chinese wind and solar power technology'. This shift is expected to continue given rising demand for electricity generation and untapped renewable energy resources on the continent. 16:09 How China is reshaping its economic ties with Africa How China is reshaping its economic ties with Africa Elena Kiryakova, a research fellow in the Global Risks and Resilience programme at ODI Global, said Africa's adoption of Chinese wind and solar tech was mainly due to its 'global competitiveness' and Africa's 'growing energy needs'.
Observer
19-04-2025
- Business
- Observer
Development finance needs an entrepreneurial mindset
The fourth United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in Seville, Spain, from June 30 to July 3, will consider a hotly debated topic: how development-finance institutions (DFIs) can mobilise more socially beneficial private investment in the countries where they operate. Many have pointed to the shortage of 'bankable projects' as the main barrier to mobilising private-sector capital. They are not wrong: under the traditional demand-led business model, DFIs can invest only in companies that want to raise capital and meet certain financial and impact criteria. But a new report by ODI Global shows that some DFIs are taking a more proactive approach when a development need is not being met by a suitable business that seeks capital. They are starting commercial ventures of their own. Earlier this year, for example, British International Investment (of which one of us is CEO) sold Ayana Renewable Power, an Indian energy company that BII founded in 2018, for $2.3 billion. In less than a decade, Ayana added, or was in the process of adding, a renewable-energy capacity of 4.1 gigawatts to a country that desperately needs it. Creating a new business from scratch, such as Ayana, is at one end of the spectrum of more entrepreneurial approaches identified by the report, which also includes setting up new intermediaries and forming joint ventures with existing firms to push them in a more development-oriented direction. While some observers lament that blended finance has not scaled as rapidly as hoped, others are concerned that it has sacrificed development impact to mobilise private capital. But impact and scale are not in opposition. The huge investments needed to decarbonise middle-income economies are certainly effective. And the 12 ventures featured in ODI Global's report have already achieved significant scale, deploying more than $4 billion of capital from DFIs and raising $3 billion from private investors. That said, sponsoring new commercial enterprises is more about impact than mobilising as much private capital as possible with the fewest public dollars, partly because it is riskier than the standard DFI model. The absence of businesses in a market segment implies that the returns on offer are relatively unappealing. But these investments may only require a longer timeframe. In such cases, DFIs and other development institutions often have the patience to wait for a business to prove itself. The ventures that ODI Global studied are on the path to profitability, but it is admittedly a long, narrow road for some (Ayana attracted private co-investors unusually quickly). DFIs should therefore take this route only when they identify an urgent unmet development need and have exhausted other possibilities. The potential for achieving development goals through DFI-sponsored ventures does not receive enough attention — especially from government shareholders, whose support is integral to developing the new mandates and tools that such efforts would require. Tellingly, the organisations responsible for the ventures in ODI Global's report — BII and Norfund (the Norwegian DFI) — are exceptionally flexible and can support long time horizons for risk-taking. BII also has the ability to take a controlling stake in companies, whereas most DFIs can take only a minority stake. To be sure, the leaders of DFIs are often uncomfortable with this idea, arguing that they know how to choose management teams to support, not how to run companies. But they must not undersell themselves. DFIs employ investment professionals who can identify a market opportunity and evaluate a business plan. After deciding to create a new venture, they can hire talent with complementary skills — as BII and Norfund have done. Despite internal concerns about staffing, it is the organisational constraints preventing DFIs from becoming entrepreneurial that are the more pressing problem. Shareholders must change the rules under which DFIs and development banks operate to allow them to establish companies. They should also develop solutions, similar to the World Bank's Private Sector Window, that increase their risk-bearing capacity. But even if they don't, DFIs can overcome these obstacles by finding creative ways to share the risks and responsibilities of generating, rather than merely responding to, investment opportunities. They would surely have the support of foundations and other impact investors who want to use catalytic, risk-tolerant financing to promote social good. One of the best ways for DFIs to advance countries' development aspirations is to create investment opportunities in critical sectors that have been and will likely continue to be, unattractive to private investors. Moving beyond the traditional demand-led model would significantly increase their potential for impact, especially following many governments' massive cuts to foreign aid. Those governments, in particular, should do all they can to support this change. @Project Syndicate, 2025 Leslie Maasdorp The writer is CEO of British International Investment Hans Peter Lankes The writer is Managing Director of ODI Global
