Extreme weather events, such as droughts and heavy rains, have become increasingly frequent in Brazil. And along with them, direct losses to various social and economic segments, to which more than 200 million Brazilians are directly or indirectly linked, such as agriculture, which depends on weather phenomena of a certain intensity and at certain times to guarantee its productivity.
The World Bank’s new report “Unbreakable: Building the Resilience of the Poor in the Face of Natural Disasters” provides data on the socioeconomic perspective of the impact of such phenomena. According to the document, interventions to make societies more resilient to climate events would result in savings of US$100 billion per year for countries and communities. The report was launched, timely, during the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP22, in Morocco last November.
The study “Valuing storms”, carried out by the Environmental Economics Group at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, indicates that between 2002 and 2012, Brazil's losses due to extreme climate disasters related to rain alone were, on average, R$278 billion.
The relationship between the increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme events and the increase in the average temperature of our planet is clear. 2015 was the hottest year since temperature records began at the end of the 19th century, and this year is on track to surpass that record. Climate imbalance has become a reality, and anyone who believes that the only people affected will be polar bears stranded on ice floes is mistaken. The impact is already happening here and now.
The next two decades will be decisive for the planet's climate future, requiring major transformations. We will move from a society based on fossil fuels and combustion engines to something very different that will change our way of life and that of future generations. Stopping using fossil fuels means the disappearance of petroleum-based products and their byproducts such as asphalt, gasoline, plastic, Styrofoam and many others.
How are your current consumption choices contributing to creating a low-carbon society that pollutes less and emits fewer gases that cause climate change? What new business opportunities will arise from these changes in the way we consume? New ideas that move in this direction will be market leaders in the very near future. It's time to get ahead and change for the better.
Article published in the Tribuna do Norte newspaper.
