Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The global heatwave has further exacerbated the dangerous sea level rise
Heatwave survivors in the poorest parts of Africa often say that what they need most of all is to be heard. It’s a notion that extends to victims of climate change.
If that was true, African governments and other donors would no doubt be trying hard to reach them. But so far, no international body in particular has been conducting very important climate change research that might make a difference to their lives.
The oil industry is also conspicuously absent from these debates – not least on how to save the African people.
Earlier this year, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a landmark report, warning us that we need urgent action on the environment.
We are already paying a terrible price, they warned: living in vulnerable coastal environments, living next to dried-up rivers and reservoirs, facing intense heatwaves, and increasing drought and flooding.
Greening the world won’t work when the wealthy — like Saudi Arabia — build dams with their own money.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Netherlands’ Wilcole Fransot has spent a lifetime exposing conflict of interest in the IPCC
But there’s a dark shadow over that assertion. So far no top emissary of the United Nations’ IPCC has travelled to the African continent to meet local governments and civil society to discuss how to provide more information.
Rather the IPCC world elite are working away quietly in Switzerland, New York and Stockholm, developing different ways of assessing the climate crisis – even the fact it’s happening.
Several years ago, I was on the verge of becoming disillusioned with climate science and climate finance.
Alarmed at the contradictions of my findings, I joined forces with colleague and colleague Andy Revkin to launch a Kickstarter project, launched last week with the aid of a campaign by the social media campaign group 4 Carbon.
Our campaign aims to raise over £350,000 to produce climate research that will influence not just us but also the donors who donate to it.
Media playback is not supported on this device Heatwave and severe droughts have not occurred in India since at least 1913
We need to do more than fund future climate research to the global elite. It’s also about shining a light on who exactly is responsible for the climate crisis, and how we can hold them to account for their decisions.
Government funding for scientific research has, for decades, been dominated by the oil and gas industry. It is also subject to huge inefficiencies, and produces slow-release products such as products that need to be resupplied with billions of liters of water each year.
But what about this disaster sweeping through drought-stricken Africa? It’s not like the oil-industry is proposing a massive adaptation project that will prove of use to Africa’s people.
All they want is an unregulated carbon tax. And it’s highly doubtful that an unholy alliance of African governments, the oil industry and climate deniers is going to put up a fight to safeguard the livelihoods of our poorest compatriots.
As long as people like me are ignored, climate change will deepen its gulf between the haves and have-nots.
It’s hard to believe we are in a world in which a little organisation called the European Climate Foundation can give a public service announcement (a video) warning people of the dire threats facing lives and homes across Africa, yet the IPCC – the expert body tasked with informing the public of the climate crisis and what we can do about it – hasn’t even made a visit to the continent’s most vulnerable communities.
And instead of continually threatening African governments with the cuts to their budgets that are required to achieve the IPCC’s 2050 targets for emissions reductions – as some of the very richest nations in the world have already done – we need a rethink of the way the international climate debate takes place.
We’re being played for fools. Climate change is an issue that could dramatically alter the global economy and global security.
Any individual who abhors the idea of climate change can contribute, every day, to a shift in our society towards renewable energy.
Join a global #FundItClimate campaign now on 4 Carbon and learn more about our campaign.
Helen Wood is a climate activist based in South Africa. Follow her on Twitter @HelenWood2.