Counting the human cost of it…

As reported by Bonner-PresseBlog, The 18 organizations of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) attending climate change talks in Bonn this week are requesting that the humanitarian impacts of climate change should more clearly be addressed in the UN agreement on climate change this December.

This call is backed by an interesting new study, issued by the Norwegian Refugee Council (“Future floods of refugees, A comment on climate change, conflict and forced migration”). This study estimates that more than 20 million people have been displaced by climate-related sudden-onset natural disasters in 2008 alone. “For the first time, we have a solid indication of the scale of forced displacement as a result of climate change”, says Elisabeth Rasmusson CEO of the Norwegian Refugee Council who co-authored the report.

IASC members argue that Copenhagen agreement on climate change has to take the humanitarian perspective into account. It is also essential for the agreement to set out a workable approach to help the world counter the impacts of extreme weather events and environmental degradation on vulnerable communities.

There are three reasons for this:
A-The total number of people affected by disasters has risen sharply over the past decade with an average of 211 million people directly affected each year, nearly five times the number affected by conflict in the same period.
B-Climate change is expected to dramatically affect patterns of migration and population movement. While migration is already a form of adaptation for some, the many millions expected to be displaced by prolonged droughts, repeated floods or storms will be especially vulnerable and require significant assistance and protection.
C-The Copenhagen agreement presents a rare opportunity to shape and guide the international response to the humanitarian consequences of climate change over the next decade. With the right approach, many of these consequences can be averted or reduced over the next decade. The humanitarian community – with its expertise, systems and partnerships – can help to manage these disaster risks.

According to John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, “the scale of the potential humanitarian challenge presented by climate change in the future is huge. This is a defining moment to ensure that the challenge is not insurmountable and human suffering is minimized”. (extracts of the BonnerPressBlog article)

And also read this !
Forced Displacement in the Context of Climate Change: Challenges for States Under International Law
Paper submitted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in cooperation with the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Representative of the Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and the United Nations University, to the 6th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 6) (1-12 June, Bonn).

To be balanced by this article:
Worse Than Fiction (The Wall Street Journal)
Global warming alarmists are fond of invoking the authority of experts against the skepticism of supposedly amateur detractors -- a.k.a. "deniers." So when one of those experts says that a recent report on the effects of climate change is "worse than fiction, it is a lie," the alarmists should, well, be alarmed