IFRC demands global action to stop climate emergency
"The climate crisis is also a humanitarian crisis," Ninni Ikkala Nyman, the IFRC’s climate change lead, told reporters in Geneva. She emphasized that Red Cross and Red Crescent teams are contending daily with "more frequent floods, droughts, heatwaves and storms," threatening lives, livelihoods, health, and the security of food and water supplies.
Nyman pointed to last month’s catastrophic Hurricane Melissa as a striking example of intensifying climate extremes. Thanks to preparedness and timely action, authorities had "valuable time to build shelters, evacuate people out of harm’s way, preposition aid and help to prepare communities" for the unprecedented category 5 storm.
The IFRC has launched emergency appeals for Cuba and Jamaica, both severely affected by Melissa, and called for additional support as recovery operations continue. Melissa’s "violent and rapid intensification needs to be a wake-up call,” Nyman said, underlining that climate change is producing stronger and less predictable storms.
Beyond the Caribbean, she highlighted the humanitarian responses to Pakistan’s devastating monsoon floods, drought conditions in Somalia worsened by climate change, and destructive wildfires across Europe, including in Türkiye.
At the COP30 conference, scheduled to begin Thursday in Belem, Brazil, the IFRC will advocate for urgent action across three key areas: protecting health and wellbeing, investing in people and communities, and implementing measures before disasters strike, Nyman said.
"Heat waves already kill almost half a million people each year, yet only 0.5 per cent of adaptation finance goes to health programs," Nyman noted, stressing the importance of developing climate-resilient health systems.
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