Sir, – With all eyes on Cop27 in Egypt this week, the climate crisis received much-needed attention. But after all the extensive deliberations in Sharm el-Sheikh, and the G20 summit in Bali, which ran parallel to the COP process, those on the frontlines of the climate crisis right now still seem to be forgotten.
A prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa has already pushed 22 million people to the edge of starvation. Yet we have still received little clarity on how global leaders will respond at the scale that is so urgently needed to stem a widespread famine. We need to be very frank about this. This drought – the result of a fourth successive failed rainy season – is already resulting in excruciating deaths. Reports from the BBC have described, in agonising detail, the slow, painful, silent death that young children are experiencing in parts of the country, and the unbearable suffering of parents who can only watch on. Can there be any doubt that this devastation, fuelled by a climate crisis rooted in western consumption, is the most urgent issue of our time? We need to recognise that none of this is inevitable. The collaboration, and extraordinary action shown during the Covid-19 pandemic, although uneven, resulted in a massive reduction of suffering and saved countless lives and we urgently need that now.
History will not be kind to us if we fail. – Yours, etc,
DOMINIC MacSORLEY,
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CEO,
Concern Worldwide,
Dublin 2.