It's time for wealthy countries to join the Global Citizen movement or we're doomed

Climate change activists have called on leaders of wealthy countries to implement a seismic climate solution to related injustice that affects poor nations. 

The UN describes climate change as long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. However, since the 1800s human activities have been the main driver of climate change, due to the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, according to the UN.

Delegates at the Global Citizen action summit in New York on Thursday and Friday said these activities have had a negative impact on poor nations, which are bearing the brunt of climate change's impact.

Global Citizen is an international advocacy organisation that's on a mission to end extreme poverty. Speaking at the summit, Vanessa Nakate, a climate activist from Uganda, said: “We can't have any new fossil fuel development if we want to (keep elevations in) temperatures below 1.5C. We are in a climate crisis ... leaders need to stop all new investments to help people who are suffering because of climate change.

“Africa is responsible for less than 4% of the global emissions, but we are bearing the brunt,” said Nakate. Climate change may lead to floods and drought, which negatively impact the agricultural sector, making it harder to produce food and ultimately leading to higher food prices.

At the summit, Global Citizen launched its new campaign, Power Our Planet: Act Today. Save Tomorrow, a global effort to mobilise critical financing for developing countries to fight climate change and extreme poverty.

Global Citizen, with Power Our Planet’s co-chair and supporters, said it “is calling for a seismic shift in the way the world’s financial systems work and is urging governments, development banks, philanthropists and major corporations to give the world’s poor and developing nations access to the financing they urgently need to quicken their transition to clean energy, strengthen defences against natural disasters and more rapidly invest in critical health, food and education programmes for their populations.”

World leaders have been urged to deliver on financing promises they’ve made, including closing the $16.7bn (about R306bn) climate finance gap outstanding from the Paris Agreement.

This call comes a month before the climate change summit in Paris, France, where leaders are expected to come up with a financial solution to help poor countries fight the repercussions of climate change and other related issues.

Speaking at the summit, prime minister of Barbados Mia Mottley said, “nobody is asking for the impossible. This is a climate crisis and we need to unlock far more private sector capital”.

“Countries don't need more debt, but help to be able to fight the crisis. We need to ensure those countries have access to money ... and unlocking international finance is critical. If we don't solve these problems today ... (who) knows what problems we will solve tomorrow with the problems of today.”

Leaders of wealthy countries “must step up and pay up on the $16bn of climate financing they have promised if we are to help save the planet and save lives. The climate crisis is our reality”, Mottley said.

Hugh Evans, co-founder and CEO of Global Citizen, said “increasing inequality and climate change threaten to undo a generation’s progress on ending extreme poverty and push millions more people into oppression that is entirely preventable”.

He said “Power Our Planet is a coalition of governments, leaders across sectors, global citizens, artists and activists, and together we’re demanding that it’s time for accountability on past promises and bold, new commitments from world leaders. And we have a clear message for the heads of the World Bank and the IMF — it’s time for major institutional reform.”

Mottley called on all institutions, including the World Bank, “to release the funds necessary to help the world's poorest countries to adapt to, transition to, and withstand the climate crisis, not tomorrow but now”.