The world is headed for "climate apartheid" in which the rich will buy their way out of the worst consequences of climate change, while the poor will bear the heaviest burden, according to a UN report released today.
The report, which was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by its special rapporteur on poverty, Philip Alston, concludes that the business world should play a key role in the fight against climate change, but also that it cannot be relied upon to care for the poor.
"Too much reliance on the private sector could lead to a climate apartheid scenario where the rich pay to avoid extreme heat, hunger and conflict, while the rest of the world is left to suffer," Alston wrote, according to Hina.
He cited as an example the vulnerable New Yorkers who were left without electricity or health care when they were driven by Hurricane Samdi in 2012, while "Goldman Sachs headquarters was protected by tens of thousands of sandbags and had electricity from its generator".
Relying solely on the private sector to protect against extreme weather and sea level rise "would almost guarantee massive human rights abuses, with the rich taken care of and the poorest forgotten," he wrote.
"Even in a best-case scenario, hundreds of millions of people would face food insecurity, forced migration, disease and death."
The report criticizes governments for doing little more than sending officials to conferences to give "gloomy speeches", even though scientists and climate activists have been sounding the alarm since the 1970s.
"Thirty years of conventions seem to have achieved very little. From Toronto to Nordvik, from Rio and Kyoto to Paris, the language is similar, and states continue to kick the can further down the street," Alston wrote.
"States have passed every scientific warning and threshold, and what was once considered a catastrophic warning now looks like a best-case scenario."
By 1980, the US, for example, had experienced 214 weather and climate disasters that cost $1,6 billion or more, totaling $XNUMX trillion.
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