As world leaders meet together in Baku pontificating over the climate crisis, ecocide and genocide is being committed in Gaza and the surrounding region. UN Secretary-General António Guterres met with young climate advocates at COP29, who told him they are frustrated by the lack of political action on the climate crisis. He said:
“I am angry because we are on the verge of the climate abyss, and I don’t see enough urgency or political will to address the emergency.”
The young climate advocates sitting in the conference halls in Baku are in stark contrast to the generation being wiped out in Gaza where Save the Children report
“The suffering being inflicted on children in Gaza and Lebanon is unfathomable. A year since conflict erupted, 14,100 children have been killed in Gaza, many more have died from hunger and disease, and nearly 20,000 are missing. Behind these appalling statistics are the stories of individual children – buried under the rubble, cut off from their families, alone and afraid. The survivors face constant hunger and horrific violence. Many are stricken by terror and grief.”
Taking place from 11 to 22 November 2024, the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan. Attended by world leaders, jetting into the conference, key points have been discussed on the urgency to mitigate the extreme climate events the world is and will experience, including the need for loss and damage compensation. Addressing the attendees António Guterres said that those that contribute more to the destruction – particularly the fossil fuel industry – continue to reap massive profits and subsidies.”
He described the creation of the Loss and Damage Fund as “a victory for developing countries, for multilateralism, and for justice,” but stressed that its initial capitalisation of $700 million “doesn’t come close to righting the wrong inflicted on the vulnerable.”
Meanwhile ecocide and genocide is taking place in Gaza.
The Nations of the West who continue to fund and support Israel with arms sales are those same leaders sitting round the table wringing their hands about the climate emergency and the destruction of the natural environment.
In Gaza over 42 million tons of rubble and a large concentration of explosive hazards from the IDF bombardments pose an imminent threat to civilians, both in unexploded ordnance, and the chemical pollutants seeping from them. Across Gaza explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination are likely to be both on the surface and sub-surface, involving not only land service ammunition (projectiles, mortars, rockets, missiles, grenades and landmines), but also deep-buried bombs, as well as weapons and ammunition caches. Despite the critical need to immediately scale up the Mine Action response, restrictions imposed by the Israeli Authorities on the entry of specialised personnel and equipment, coupled with access constraints, hamper mine action activities and curtail efforts to protect people from ERW and the safe and sustainable delivery of humanitarian aid.
The appalling destruction of the civilian infrastructure leaves water undrinkable and people living amongst sewage.
It is estimated that about 100,000 people have been displaced over the last four weeks from North Gaza to Gaza city and between 75,000 and 95,000 people were estimated to remain in North Gaza. Civilians squatted into smaller and smaller spaces as they search for some safety.
And the slaughter continues as the world looks on.
Between the afternoons of 29 October and 5 November, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 330 Palestinians were killed and 1,124 were injured.
Between 7 October 2023 and 5 November 2024, at least 43,391 Palestinians have been killed and 102,347 injured, according to MoH in Gaza. These numbers are a gross underestimate as the hundreds of bodies lying beneath the rubble decay undocumented. Those numbers do not include the thousands who are now starving, in a land where agriculture has been destroyed and the delivery of aid severely restricted.
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council commented after his recent visit to Gaza:
“I witnessed during my visit to Gaza last week the deliberate starvation of almost 2 million civilians, whilst the bombardment continues.”
Click on this link to access, The Gaza Scorecard: Israel Fails to Comply with U.S. Humanitarian Access Demands in Gaza
Despite intensive diplomatic engagement by the United States and other countries, Israel has consistently failed to uphold its legal obligation to facilitate adequate humanitarian relief for civilians in Gaza during its ongoing military operation there. People are being starved in Gaza: Israeli military operations have denied them critical food aid and basic necessities, which has, in turn, caused conditions approaching famine for 800,000 Palestinian civilians across Gaza. Conditions are worst in Gaza’s north, where Israel launched a major operation in October that has cut off humanitarian aid to the area.
The principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee now assess that “the entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.” The findings of this scorecard underscore Israel’s failure to comply with U.S. demands and international obligations. Israel should be held accountable for the end result of failing to ensure the adequate provision of food, medical, and other supplies to reach people in need. The Gaza Scorecard
The insanitary conditions people are forced to endure have resulted in a rise in dysentery and for the first time in 25 years polio. The second round of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip has been completed with an overall 556 774 children under the age of 10 being vaccinated with a second dose of polio vaccine, and 448 425 children between 2- to 10-years-old receiving vitamin A, following the three phases conducted in the last weeks. Attending vaccination clinics, however, is fraught with danger. On 6th November the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that an estimated 7000-10 000 children in inaccessible areas like Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun remain unvaccinated and vulnerable to the poliovirus. This also increases the risk of further spread of poliovirus in the Gaza Strip and neighbouring countries.
UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, stated that these “are yet further examples of the grave consequences of the indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza strip.”
Save the Children’s Regional Director warned that if “the international community does not intervene soon, an entire generation of children in Gaza will be erased, along with their futures.”
People, Place and Planet
Back at COP29, WHO has stressed to the attendees the importance of positioning health at the core of all climate negotiations, strategies, policies and action plans. The COP29 special report on climate change and health identifies critical policies across three integrated dimensions – people, place and planet. The report outlines key actions aiming to protect all people, particularly the estimated 3.6 billion people who live in areas which are most susceptible to climate change.
Right at the top of the report’s recommendations is “make human health and well-being the top measure of climate success to catalyse progress and ensure people-centred adaptation and resilience”
Commenting on the report Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said:
“From the impacts of extreme heat to the spread of illnesses through floodwaters, from malnutrition as crops fail to mosquito-borne diseases where they haven’t been seen before, the climate crisis is the ultimate health crisis. This report is vital – highlighting how climate change makes us sick and what we need to do about it.”
The double standards of our political leaders and governments who continue to support Israel in the ecocide and genocide of Gaza are all too clear to be seen.
Orkney’s Vigil for Gaza
On Saturday 16th November Orcadians have an opportunity to put their views on Gaza to Alistair Carmichael, the LibDem MP for the Orkney and Shetland Constituency. He will be upstairs in the Town Hall Kirkwall at 11.30 am to listen and answer questions.
Islanders will also be holding their regular vigil from 1 to 2pm on the Kirk Green, outside St Magnus Cathedral. They are calling for an immediate ceasefire and welcome anyone who wishes to see an end to the slaughter to join them.
You can listen to some of their views in this latest video by Mike Robertson for The Orkney News.
Fiona Grahame