The poorest are those who contribute the least to the worsening of climate change, but they are the ones who tend to suffer its consequences with greater intensity.
The first observation is part of the report that has just been released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations (UN), while the second can be observed in the Brazilian experience itself: the poorest families, mostly composed of people Black women are among the main victims of climate catastrophes.
The IPCC report shows a glaring social imbalance when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions: while 10% of the world’s homes account for between 35% and 45% of emissions, 50% are responsible for up to 15% of the total.
In addition, the planet’s poorest countries and island nations, the main victims of climate impacts, together contributed to less than 4% of global emissions in 2019.
In the Brazilian case, the effects of the climate catastrophe are accentuated by our classic problems of infrastructure and poverty. For example, as highlighted in a recent BBC report, in recent decades, the municipalities of Francisco Morato, Franco da Rocha and Embu das Artes, where at least 16 of the victims of last summer’s rains lived, registered a population growth much higher computed in the capital of São Paulo and in the metropolitan region and, not coincidentally, they are also municipalities with a significant presence of black population.
A good part of this contingent, due to lack of resources, lives precisely on the slopes of hills and banks of rivers and streams, being subject to suffering from landslides and floods, configuring a typical case of environmental racism. In other words, this is yet another example that the poorest black population is the most affected by the indirect effects of climate change in cities.
It is worth remembering that the last water crises – which emptied the hydroelectric reservoirs and required the activation of thermal plants – hit the residents of the periphery, who had even more difficulty paying the electricity bill: in 2021, for example, data from the Agency National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) show that 39.43% of low-income families delayed their bill by at least one month.
These delays leave them under constant threat of cuts in the provision of a service essential for modern life, jeopardizing access to a right that is not only guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution but is crucial for the guarantee of others.
In parallel, the IPCC report also draws attention to the importance of cities in terms of climate change and control: without mitigation measures, urban areas will exceed the current amount of emissions, which is around 29 billion tons of carbon dioxide and methane, to 40 billion tons by 2050.
Fortunately, the urban environment also presents numerous opportunities for mitigating emissions. According to the panel, with ambitious and immediate measures, cities could approach net zero emissions by mid-century through changes in energy and material consumption, electrification of transport and carbon sequestration in the urban environment, in addition to the recovery of methane emissions from sanitary landfills, contributing to Brazil’s commitment to cut methane emissions by 30%. In addition, the panel points out, the construction sector has the potential to reduce emissions by 61% by 2050.
Efforts towards clean energy are a fundamental part of this equation, considering that, as the report itself shows, in the last decade, the price of solar energy and lithium-ion batteries has dropped by 85%, the price of wind energy has dropped by 55%. , while the adoption of electric cars grew 100-fold and the installation of solar panels grew 10-fold.
In the Brazilian case, in addition to implementing measures in this direction, the challenge is to make them part of a strategic plan to solve the problems of the populations most exposed to climate problems through a fair energy transition, the costs of which do not fall on the poor and racialized communities.
This involves the adoption of public policies that allow, for example, the process of electrification of transport to enable improvements in infrastructure, providing buses with less environmental impact, but also with better quality. Quality should still be the focus of popular housing construction programs, ensuring greater durability for buildings and a more dignified life for its residents.
Public policies must also respond to the need for better organization of cities, in order to expand mixed areas –residential and commercial– and thus reduce necessary displacements.
Efforts in the area of ​​energy must also be considered, with measures to encourage greater efficiency in its use, development of solar energy projects that directly benefit low-income populations and improvement of waste management, to ensure, for example, , the use of biogas generated from the decomposition of waste for the production of electricity.
In short, we need fairer urban planning that combats climate change and social and racial inequalities in cities at the same time.
