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The Need to Address Both Climate Change and Poverty

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Climate change and poverty are intimately connected. This connection deserves a closer look, given deepening social and economic inequalities worldwide. The call to integrate climate adaptation measures with poverty reduction measures are ongoing.

In 2021, countries facing the greatest ecological threat were the same as those facing the greatest need for economic support. A longstanding recommendation of the OECD is to increase the adaptive capacity of nations to combat climate change and to address poverty.

A report by The Green Resilience Project highlights four recommendations for Canadian government and climate policymakers to enhance economic vitality of communities while addressing climate change. These recommendations are to:

  1. Incorporate basic income into Canada’s plan for a just transition.
  2. Design income security and climate policy solutions to focus on improving individual and collective quality of life.
  3. Empower people and communities with the tools and resources they need to build or strengthen resilience
  4. Ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share.

It is time to rethink the term “resilience,” if not to do away with the word altogether, so that governments, corporations, and society can more realistically address the emergent and long-term needs of nations and communities to address poverty and climate change effects simultaneously. Investment into sustainable projects that address the dual problems of climate change and poverty can counter the overemphasis on how nations and communities fight environmental and economic adversity despite all the odds.

 

By Leela Viswanathan

 

(Image credit: Aaron Burden, Unsplash)

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Adaptive Capacity and Adaptation of Indigenous Peoples to Environmental Change

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Adaptive capacity and adaptation are both crucial to addressing the impact of environmental change and degradation on the health and well-being of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. After all, nurturing a connection with Mother Earth is fundamental to the well-being of humankind.

Indigenous peoples have tremendous adaptive capacity to health risks associated with climate and environmental changes. However, social and economic stressors such as “poverty, land dispossession and globalization” are proving to be major obstacles to the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines adaptive capacity as “[t]he ability of a system to adjust to climate change (including climate variability and extremes) to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with consequences”. Adaptation involves an “adjustment in natural or human systems” as they respond to climate change, and then either manage the harm that is caused by the change, or exploit the benefits of the change.

Understanding how communities make decisions can enable more effective community responses to the health consequences of climate change, and potentially reduce risks for, as well as protect against, disease, injury, disability poor nutrition, and death, which are all possible health impacts of extreme weather events (e.g., floods, hurricanes, landslides, etc.). Therefore, to reduce health impacts and vulnerability of Indigenous communities to climate change, different strategies must consider socio-economic factors as well as environmental factors that ultimately influence a community’s ability and capacity to adapt.

 

By Leela Viswanathan

 

(Photo Credit: Zdenek Machacek, Unsplash)

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