By Felicity Checksfield – Art in Tanzania internship
What is climate inequality?
Climate inequality refers to the unequal distribution of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to the unequal distribution of the effects of climate change. According to an Oxfam report, the poorest 50% of the global population account for only 10% of total global CO2 emissions, yet they live overwhelmingly in countries most vulnerable to climate change (Oxfam, 2015). Contrastingly, the wealthiest 10% of the worldwide population account for 50% of emissions.
In a world where the top 10% of the population is responsible for 34% of household-related carbon emissions, it is clear that there exists a correlation between the amount of money available to a community and its subsequent emissions (Hubacek et al., 2017). According to the 2017 report, the average carbon footprint of the lowest-income category worldwide is 1.6 tons per day, but it drastically increases to 17.9 tons per day for the highest-income category. Consequently, the average carbon footprint of the global elites is approximately 11 times higher than that of the lowest expenditure group.
Climate change is consequently having a disproportionate impact on developing countries, small island states, and low-lying countries. This raises profound justice issues as the contribution of these states to climate change is very small (Ataputtu, 2018). The resource-intensive lifestyles in the Global North have contributed to the exploitation of the Global South’s resources. This has caused harmful economic and environmental consequences in these regions and has trapped Southern nations in vicious cycles of poverty and ecological degradation (Gonzalez, 2015)
How does climate inequality affect Tanzania?
Multiple stressors make Tanzanians highly vulnerable to the predicted impacts of climate change. The country is projected to warm by 2-4°C by 2100. Rainfall is expected to decrease by about 20% in the inner parts of the country, with dry seasons becoming longer and drier. In contrast, rainfall may increase by up to 50% in the northeast and southeast (Hulme et al. 2001). Climate change has disastrous impacts on food production, forests, water resources, human settlements, and human health. This is especially disastrous for rural Tanzanian communities, whose livelihoods depend on already risky primary agricultural production sources. The average income levels in the country are among the lowest in the world, and a lack of access to technological alternatives accentuates their vulnerability.
Vulnerable communities
It is generally accepted that certain groups within states are also disproportionately affected due to historic marginalisation and inequities. Women, children and indigenous peoples, those who are living in poverty, and those who are forced to migrate as a result of climate change are among those groups. The Paris Climate Agreement 2015 identified several categories of vulnerable people. These included indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children and persons with disabilities (Preamble).
In Tanzania, the vulnerability of these groups is particularly notable.
Women
Rural groups
Climate change will adversely affect food production, energy and water supplies. These are all essential prerequisites for the well-being of rural households.
Urban groups
In Dar es Salaam, two-thirds of the population (over two million people) live in flood-prone areas (UNEP 2002). With poor urban management, increased flooding resulting from extreme weather events makes these citizens incredibly vulnerable.
Women’s activities, such as tilling fields and collecting firewood and water, will be adversely affected by climate change. More time will be needed to carry out these activities, and less will be available for other activities, such as earning an income.
Children
Nutritional deficiencies, illnesses, and a lack of education are all symptoms of a childhood affected by climate change. These can have irreversible consequences that can burden the affected.
How is climate inequality being tackled?
Climate inequality is recognised and formally espoused in instruments of international environmental law and human rights. Article 3(1) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992 introduced a relative capacity element, highlighting the ‘common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities’ of individual states.
This principle asserts that states causing environmental harm should bear primary responsibility for solutions and that richer states should take the lead and bear a greater burden due to their greater economic and technological capacity. This was explicitly acknowledged in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (Article 2(2)).
Steps are being taken within the international community to address the acute vulnerability of countries in this region. One of the key initiatives launched at the UN Climate Summit in September 2014 was the Extreme Climate Facility (XCF), developed by the African Risk Capacity (ARC). The aim of the XCF was to secure financing for African governments that would enable them to respond to the impacts of increased climate volatility (Dehm, 2020). Each African climatic region would be tracked for the frequency and magnitude of its extreme weather events. When the index exceeded pre-determined thresholds, countries automatically received funds to support pre-determined adaptation plans.
This international financial support is not understood as compensation or reparation for the impacts of climate change from historical polluters, but rather as investments to bolster better climate adaptability. This is an important distinction to make. Appropriate reparations for climate inequality must challenge the narrative of Northern states and NGOs as the “saviours” of Southern states. This narrative fails to address the complicity of Northern states in such human rights violations. A critical approach to climate inequality must explicitly address the historic and current causes of climate change, disrupt the savior-savage narrative, and ensure that the discourse appropriately addresses the more profound structural inequities that produce environmental injustice (Gonzalez, 2015).
How is climate inequality being tackled in Tanzania?
In Tanzania, rural communities have developed various climate adaptation techniques to mitigate the impact of climate change. Crop switching is the process by which farmers plant rice or maize in years with adequate rainfall and switch to millet in dry years. The use of forest resources for generating cash income (such as making timber, charcoal, or bricks) in particularly dry seasons can help mitigate the impact of potential crop failure.
However, adaptation plans and measures must also alleviate the vulnerability of the most susceptible groups to climate change. Reactive measures, such as those mentioned above, are necessary to address the immediate stresses and hazards of climate change. However, reducing immediate vulnerability is not enough. More systemic changes in governments and institutions are required to achieve permanent reductions in vulnerabilities.
Effective environmental and social governance is needed for an effective adaptation to the changing climate in Tanzania. Indeed, if literacy rates and educational enrollment continue to decline, the effectiveness of educational campaigns on climate change and health promotion may also decrease. A broad commitment to public programs and spending on health and education is therefore paramount to tackling climate inequality.
To conclude, climate change is having a devastating impact on communities in the Global South, particularly those in Eastern Africa. This is a matter of injustice, as these communities contribute the least to carbon emissions. As we have explored, efforts to redress this climate inequality must (a) explicitly address the particularly vulnerable groups to climate change as well as (b) provide a systemic and long-term adaptability framework that appropriately addresses the historic and current causes of climate change. This may come in the form of local schemes of adaptability, national financing mechanisms and better environmental and social governance.
