“The Effects of Climate Change in Africa.”
Chairwoman Bass, Ranking Member Smith, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to share my testimony today. My name is
I also serve on
I am speaking today in my personal capacity to address the important questions raised by this Subcommittee on the effects of climate change in
To begin, I want to acknowledge that, like the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, where in effect we are as strong as our weakest links, climate change poses a similarly urgent challenge requiring coordinated global action and solidarity. For the world to rise to the occasion of arresting the spread of COVID-19 and responding to climate threats,
I am no stranger to
In 2015, I was invited to be a part of
Economic and insurance impacts
Home to more than 1.34 billion people and 54 sovereign countries, the effects of climate change in
A useful framework for thinking about climate-related economic consequences is the notion of economic output at risk, or GDP@Risk. This is a methodology I helped launch with Lloyd's, the
Not unlike some of the challenges we see in the
Insurance and risk-sharing mechanisms are key instruments that can not only create investor confidence in deploying more capital across
Infectious and vector-borne diseases
In the risk management profession, there is a concept known as tracking near misses. By this measure, the drum beat that a global pandemic was on the horizon was growing louder over the years. The 2014 Ebola outbreak in
At the time of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, I was leading a global insurance company that handled medical evacuations from affected countries. What was notable then, as in the current response to COVID-19, was that the outbreak quickly overwhelmed first lines of defense, negating a defense-in-depth approach or early alert system that a novel zoonotic or vector-borne disease has broken nature's boundary. Local healthcare systems, NGOs, and regional responses faltered, and the veritable "militarization" of the response required
With the specter of unchecked climate change along with the blurred lines between our species and nature's defenses, including perilous animal farming and wild game consumption, we are likely to see the emergence of future infectious diseases with pandemic potential develop in
Human displacement and mass migration
The insidious human toll of climate change is that it exacts the heaviest price on the people who can least afford it and who make the lowest direct contribution to its onset. Just as low-income families who live in low-lying areas in poorly constructed housing in the
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), 60% of all internal displacement in
This chain of human migration and displacement not only destabilizes local and regional political order and boundaries, it is also spilling over into
Local, regional, and international security
Being one of the greatest amplifiers of global risk and instability, the link between climate change and an increase in political risk is clear. The specter of resource conflicts such as "water wars," where tensions are mounting over control of scarce inland waterways and potable water or hydropower along the Nile river, to the mounting threat of terrorism or militia groups wreaking havoc across the continent and exporting it trans-nationally is ever present. Similarly, the perennial threat of
While other witnesses in today's hearing are foremost experts in food security, it bears mentioning that there is a direct link between climate change and the prospect of agricultural collapse. As one example, rainfall deficits have contributed to declining aggregate cereal output and crop yields of many staple foods across
Energy Security
As many of the world's failed or enfeebled economies remind us, you can have electricity and not have a competitive economy, but you cannot have a competitive economy without electricity. Energy security and risk resilient critical infrastructure represent key opportunities for powering
In the same way that formal financial infrastructure like brick-and-mortar banking has reached a point of diminishing returns in terms of financial inclusion, traditional carbon-hungry approaches in the energy matrix need a reset. This reset requires a shift in reliance to renewable energy, it also requires wider adoption of distributed microgrids and more diversification along the energy matrix and its value chain. In the face of climate change, traditional critical infrastructure is proving to be very brittle and labors under many single points of failure. Examples abound of these vulnerabilities in the
With a renewable energy sector thriving in the
Like the newly released Global Trends 2040 superforecasting report from the
Below are some policy considerations that can help change the tide, at once improving African climate resilience while advancing broad
. Financial de-risking and insurance - Broadening the base of inward investment flows, including foreign direct investment (FDI), official development aid (ODA) and remittances into
. Trade and investment promotion - Increasing the scope of
. Energy security collaboration and grid resilience - As the
. Upgrading weather instrumentation and monitoring -
. Corruption-resistant low-cost remittance corridors - The world's most important and recession-resistant cashflow are peer-to-peer remittance payments. Historically, remittances are a larger figure than FDI and ODA and
.
. Strengthening Pandemic Recovery and Public Health - Overcoming the urge of "vaccine nationalism" and ensuring
The foregoing are but some ideas that can build on the long term and important relationship between the
Thank you, Chairwoman Bass, Ranking Member Smith, and Members of the Subcommittee, for the opportunity to provide my testimony.
Read this original document at: http://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA16/20210427/112496/HHRG-117-FA16-Wstate-DisparteD-20210427.pdf
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