A new report by Oxfam shows that appeals for humanitarian aid due to climate change impacts have increased by 800% since 20 years ago. With demand for funding higher than ever, costs are going unmet by wealthier donor nations, which are also the most responsible for the crisis at hand. CNN reports that since 2017, only 54% of UN humanitarian appeals have been met.

This failure to provide funding is yet another way the world’s most disadvantaged nations are being slighted by those that are the wealthiest. Climate policy expert Russell Armstrong told CNN:

Climate change is harming and will continue to harm Black, Indigenous, and people of color and other vulnerable communities first and worst -- disrupting their livelihoods, culture, health, and way of life. Even though the economic toll of climate change, estimated between $300 billion and $500 billion globally, is on par with government subsidies for fossil fuels, calls for solutions have gone unheard.

Why This Matters

As the climate crisis accelerates, extreme weather disasters will continue to exacerbate the already existing inequalities between the world’s richest and poorest. Recent reports estimate climate change to cost $178 trillion globally, over the next 50 years, and displace more than 200 million people over the next two decades. Mass climate migration has already begun with large numbers coming from countries that have appealed for aid. For example, Afghanistan and South Sudan have experienced prolonged droughts and floods, widespread poverty, and non-resilient infrastructure. The conditions have resulted in famine and have left many with no other choice but to migrate. Upon entering what some experts have coined a "new era of risk,” funding from the world’s highest-emitting countries over both the short and long term is essential.

Breaking News In Bonn

The release of Oxfam’s findings is timely, as global climate ministers just met in Bonn, Germany, from June 7-9, for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The organization hopes the report will compel global leaders to act urgently on the matter of "loss and damage.” In other words, wealthy countries must bear the costs of the climate crisis.

"The report’s findings are stark … We emit almost nothing, but in our group of countries there are islands sinking, landslides burying homes, hospitals being washed away by catastrophic weather events,” said Madeleine Diouf Sarr, UNFCCC’s Least Developed Countries Group chair, during UN talks, the Guardian reports. "Rich countries have historic[al] responsibility for this crisis, why shouldn’t they contribute to cleaning up the mess?”