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Climate and Environment

    • Climate crisis costs up over 800 per cent as UN donor nations fail to keep pace, report says

    A man drinks water at a market place during an extremely hot day in Mumbai, India, on April 28, 2022. (Rajanish kakade / AP) A man drinks water at a market place during an extremely hot day in Mumbai, India, on April 28, 2022. (Rajanish kakade / AP)
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    The amount of money needed to aid communities in the face of extreme has increased by more than 800% in the past two decades as the also rapidly accelerated, new research shows.

    , found not only is the need for extreme weather-related UN humanitarian funding now sharply higher than 20 years ago, but donor nations are also failing to keep up with the staggering .

    In 2021, the economic toll of extreme weather events was roughly US$329 billion globally -- the third highest year on record and almost double the total aid donated by wealthy nations to poorer countries that same year.

    Between 2000 and 2002, the UN needed an average of $1.6 billion in funding each year for humanitarian projects after extreme weather events. By 2019 through 2021, it was seeking an average of $15.5 billion each year -- an increase of more than 800%.

    Additionally, the report shows that for every $2 needed to address climate change-fueled disasters, wealthy donor countries are only providing half of that.

    "Climate change is harming, and will continue to harm, Black, Indigenous, and people of colour and other vulnerable communities first and worst -- disrupting their livelihoods, culture, health, and way of life," Russell Armstrong, Oxfam America's senior climate policy adviser, told CNN.

    "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," he added.

    Since 2017, roughly 54% of the developed countries today have met these UN humanitarian appeals, leaving a deficit of up to $33 billion.

    From addressing wars to food scarcity around the globe, researchers say the climate crisis is putting even more pressure on an already financially-strained UN humanitarian system.

    The impact of climate change-fuelled disasters exacerbates inequalities already baked into a country's physical and social infrastructure, mostly hitting low-income nations the hardest.

    Such countries typically lack the proper infrastructure and money needed to recover from disasters.

    According to the report, the countries with the most recurring appeals regarding extreme weather crises include Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Zimbabwe.

    Meanwhile, rich countries such as the more of the emissions that fuel these extreme weather events.

    As the biggest historical emitter of carbon pollution "the U.S. has an obligation to the global community to prioritize the fight against climate change and help foot the bill on the costs of destruction from extreme weather," Armstrong said.

    According to the report, the UN humanitarian appeals only cover a small fraction -- roughly 7.5% or 474 million of the estimated 3.9 billion people -- of low- and middle-income nations that have been plagued by climate change-fuelled disasters since the beginning of this century.

    The report was published as ministers meet in Bonn, Germany, for climate talks to discuss the issue of "loss and damage," essentially the payment of funds from the wealthy world to countries dealing with more severe impacts of the climate crisis.

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    Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

    The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

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    Canada

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    • Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.

    • Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

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    Business

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    • They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

    Sports

    • Agreement in principle has been reached to build a new NHL arena at LeBreton Flats has been reached between the Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission (NCC), the two sides announced Friday.

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    Autos

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    Local Spotlight

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    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

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    Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

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    • It will be the last show for longtime children's TV star Ron (Buck Shot) Barge as a memorial is held Friday in Calgary.

    • Alberta Health Services says an E. coli outbreak at a daycare in Blackfalds has ended.

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    • Ottawa Fire Services says a driver has been safely extricated after being trapped following a two-vehicle collision near a high school in the city’s south end.

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    • A man who asserted his right to work in French has won his case before the Tribunal, invoking the new provisions of the province's French-language law (Bill 96) to that effect.

    • Alberta Health Services says an E. coli outbreak at a daycare in Blackfalds has ended.

    • Mounties say there was an increased police presence in the Emerald Hills area of Sherwood Park on Friday morning as officers searched for a man who is wanted by police.

    • Edmonton police say a man who was died in the river valley last weekend was fatally shot.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      The New Brunswick RCMP has issued an alert as officers search for an armed teenager in the Moncton and Shediac areas.

    • A Nova Scotia woman has applied for a medically assisted death, saying after years of battling to receive out-of-country surgery for an illness that causes 'indescribable' pain, she struggles to maintain the will to live.

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    • Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.

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    N.L.

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