32 - From Covid-19 to Climate Change: Disaster and Inequality at the Crossroads

Summary

As the pace of climate change accelerates, the impacts of a warming world become more evident and more inevitable. Climate change multiplies and compounds stresses on human and natural systems and amplifies the risk and implications of slow- and sudden-onset disasters worldwide. Some of these risks can be avoided. Some can be alleviated. Some, however, may now or soon be unescapable. The risk continuum is shaped by the degree to which the international community mobilizes to mitigate emissions, to facilitate adaptation, and to prepare for climate-related impacts that cannot be eased or eliminated. The less we do to mitigate, adapt, and prepare, the more acute the risks of climate change become, especially in the global south and especially for already-vulnerable communities. With average global temperatures currently on track to exceed the 2°C target, climate change is expected to multiply the number of people susceptible to poverty, undermine food security, intensify heat and water stress, and increase the risks of fires, storms, flooding, landslides, and infectious and parasitic diseases. In this world of amplified risk, the lines between natural disasters and climate-related disasters blur. Even as these lines blur and the demand for improved coordination grows, critical institutional and legal disjunctions remain. Focusing on the Warsaw Mechanism for Loss & Damage, this chapter examines evolving efforts to construct a more effective and equitable rule of law and institutional framework at the intersection of climate change and disaster law.