How to save the most vulnerable areas of our planet
While efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change will continue to be an international priority in the coming decades, the most urgent risks of global warming require immediate action and new ideas
4' min read
4' min read
While efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change will continue to be an international priority in the coming decades, the most urgent risks of global warming require immediate action and fresh ideas. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga last month, 'saving the Pacific means saving the world'.
Since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed eight years ago, much progress has been made towards a more sustainable economy, not least through new technological solutions that enable countries to maintain a sustained pace of growth while reducing emissions. Governments, businesses and households are increasingly determined to support climate investments. Renewable energy is becoming the first choice of companies for electricity production. Innovation is strengthening the competitiveness of green alternatives, and financial institutions have come to allocate more than a trillion dollars a year to green projects.
In this context, sustained and concerted global action will be the key to success. But for the world's most vulnerable regions, progress is happening too slowly. For people living on small islands and facing rising sea levels, extreme weather conditions and warming oceans, climate change already poses an existential threat. Although their impact on the environment is minimal, these regions are the most exposed to the problem. Their challenges of today will become the global crises of tomorrow.
For small islands, adaptation is crucial. Island states in the Caribbean and Pacific, along with parts of Latin America, Africa and Asia, face many more climate-related problems than other parts of the world. And they are also more vulnerable economically. Whether borrowing to recover from natural disasters or investing in resilience to climate change, these countries face high interest rates, the additional costs of which come at the expense of investments in health and education.
As a world leader in humanitarian and development aid, the European Union is one of the closest partners of small island states and other vulnerable regions in the fight against climate change. As part of the Global Gateway strategy, we have followed words with a concrete commitment that stems from a genuine spirit of solidarity and common sense. We know, in fact, that the costs of a disjointed ecological transition would far outweigh the costs of an immediate investment in climate adaptation and mitigation. The gradual and credible changes we make today are what will spare us in the future the enormous economic, social and environmental damage caused by out-of-control climate change.
