Climate crisis is a safety and justice crisis
If the world doesn’t take serious and urgent climate action, all people – including those who are rich – will live in a danger zone, IHE Delft and University of Amsterdam Professor Joyeeta Gupta warned in a session at the World Economic Forum, recently held in Davos, Switzerland.
“Civilizations rise and fall based on their ability to manage scarce water resources. We are no different,” Gupta said at the event, organized by the Earth Commission.
“This is a safety crisis,” she said about the climate crisis. “But above all, it is also a justice crisis: many areas in the world are uninhabitable - this uninhabitable zone is increasing. If we continue with our greenhouse gas emissions, then by 2070 as many as 3 billion people will live in uninhabitable zones - mostly in poorer countries. This basically means that these people who probably have the least contribution to the climate problem have been the ones who are the most exposed.”
The presentation underscored that while populations across the world are exposed to varying levels of risk from human-induced instability in the Earth System, no one is safe if we continue on the warming trajectory of today. Everyone living in a danger zones must be provided with opportunities to escape, and those without access to basic needs - rights to water, food, energy and infrastructure – must have these needs met, Gupta added.
Gupta is Professor of Law and Policy in Water Resources and Environment at IHE Delft, and Professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of the University of Amsterdam. She presented together with Johan Rockström, Director at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who warned that nine of 16 large biophysical systems that regulate earth’s climate system are showing signs of instability.
“Civilizations rise and fall based on their ability to manage scarce water resources. We are no different”
“Push them too far and they will shift over from supporting humanity to starting to undermine humanity,” he said.
But with action, there is hope, Gupta added. The two speakers outlined new Earth Systems Boundaries, which they argued provides the direction of travel towards for a safe and just space for humanity.
“If we do nothing, if we do the minimum, at this pivotal moment in our history, then we and our children, even if we are rich, will live in the danger zone,” she said. “But if we, we business people, if we governments, citizens, cities, if we take action today, then we and our children will have a future worth looking forward to,” she said.