Climate change is a bigger threat than COVID-19, says Red Cross

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a new report that we need to react to climate change with the same urgency as that to the coronavirus crisis. Emphasizing that while there would be a vaccine available in the likely future for COVID-19, there is no vaccine for climate change. 

The report studied global catastrophes since the 1960s and noted that the world had been hit by more than 100 disasters- the majority of which were climate related-since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic in March, with over 50 million people affected. 

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In a virtual press conference the Secretary-General of the Geneva-based organisation, Jagan Chapagain, while acknowledging the pandemic as a “very, very serious crisis that the world is facing”, stated that the IFRC expects “climate change will have a more significant medium and long term impact on the human life and on Earth.”

With regards to global warming, he also noted that “it will require a much more sustained action and investment to really protect the human life on this Earth.”

According to the IRFC, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate-related incidents have increased considerably in recent decades, steadily climbing since the 1960s and surging by nearly 35% since the 1990s.

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These disasters have killed more than 410,000 people over the past decade, most of them in poorer countries, with heatwaves and storms proving the most deadly, the report said.

It also estimated that around $50 billion would be needed annually over the next decade to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

“Our first responsibility is to protect communities that are most exposed and vulnerable to climate risks,” Chapagain said at the conference, adding that “there is a clear disconnection between where the climate risk is greatest and where climate adaptation funding goes” and that “this disconnection could very well cost lives.”