Rising temperatures will push millions of people into poverty unless governments take swift action

Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report detailing progress and pathways to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

Responding to the report, Raijeli Nicole, regional director for Oxfam in the Pacific said:  

“Climate change has set our planet on fire, millions are already feeling the impacts, and the IPCC just showed that things can get much worse. The faster governments embrace the renewable energy revolution and move to protect communities at risk, the more lives and livelihoods will be spared.

“Every tenth of a degree of warming is a choice between life or death. At 1.1 degrees, we’re already witnessing the beginnings of massive displacement and a shocking rise in hunger, with women living in poverty suffering the most. It only gets worse from here.

“If we settle for 2 degrees, entire communities will be displaced, and tens, if not hundreds of millions more will be thrown into poverty.

“To do nothing more and simply follow the commitments made in the Paris Agreement condemns the world to 3 degrees of warming. The damage to our planet and humanity would be irreparable and exponentially worse.

“None of this is inevitable. What gives us hope is that some of the poorest and lowest emitting countries are now leading the climate fight. Rich countries must now follow suit.

“Time is short. There’s still a chance of keeping to 1.5 degrees of warming. The solutions are there – and they do not involve kicking poor farmers off their land to make way for carbon farming. Instead, we must focus on ending the use of fossils fuels – including putting a stop to new coal power stations.”