Near chlamydia-free, genetically diverse & unique Koala community found in Fernbrook area of northern New South Wales

 

Yahoo! News, 9 December 2024:

Australian wildlife researchers have made an incredibly rare discovery in the bush that they've branded "such an exciting result" for koala conservation.

Thanks to assistance from a "poo-sniffing English springer spaniel" named Max, a new community of koalas at Fernbrook, inland of Coffs Harbour, has been found that appear to be both chlamydia free and genetically different — an "increasingly rare" feat in NSW......

"More surveys need to be done, but it appears these koalas at Fernbrook are very special. They can still breed and produce future generations with higher climate resilience."

.....

Why is it so significant to find both chlamydia-free and genetically diverse koalas in NSW?

Surveys by Max and the team from Canines for Wildlife showed that the broader koala population in Coffs Harbour and Bellingen has low levels of chlamydia and high genetic diversity overall.

Genetic diversity enhances a population's ability to resist diseases and in koalas, a lack of it makes them more susceptible to infections.

Urban development, agriculture, and deforestation have broken up koala habitats into smaller, scattered patches, limiting their ability to travel and find unrelated mates. Koalas often remain in isolated areas, leading to a reduced genetic pool and increased inbreeding over generations. The Fernbrook results "have conservationists celebrating" and calling for a "halt to logging in state forests" that contain vital koala food and habitat trees. While the group of 10 koalas in Fernbrook are on private properties and are not threatened by logging — the wider population around Coffs Harbour is.

Canines for Wildlife were recruited to survey for koalas across 115 sites in the Coffs Harbour and Bellingen areas, ranging from coastal regions to the Dorrigo Plateau nearly 1,000 metres above sea level.

"We learned this population is healthy, has high genetic diversity and relatively low levels of chlamydia. So this is a really important population. If we’re going to save koalas we need to wrap healthy populations like this in cotton wool and protect them," Blanch said.

"It beggars belief that the tree homes of koalas continue to be knocked down and destroyed. Logging should stop right now in the area being assessed for the Great Koala National Park and in plantations where koalas live."

What's next?

A total of 109 poo samples were collected in 2022-2023 and sent for genetic testing at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Lynn Baker from Canines for Wildlife said this new colony must be protected.

"For a koala researcher this is such an exciting result," she said. "We knew the koalas at Fernbrook looked different. They are a lot furrier and darker in colour than their compatriots on the coast. They look like cold weather koalas.

"But if this is a genetically different and a chlamydia-free group then it’s important that they are protected. There are not many areas left in NSW that have distinct groups of [healthy] koalas.

"The burning question is are these koalas isolated to the habitat on these properties or are they connected to other chlamydia-free koalas that we haven’t sampled yet?"

Canines for Wildlife is hoping to do further surveys in the areas surrounding Fernbrook to help answer the question.

Since 2001, koala numbers in the state have decreased by 33 per cent to 61 per cent, driven by habitat destruction, climate change, disease, and urbanisation. The devastating 2019–2020 bushfires alone killed at least 6,400 koalas.

Read the full article at https://au.news.yahoo.com/incredibly-rare-discovery-in-aussie-bush-by-sniffer-dog-like-striking-gold-040624856.html

CLIMATE CHANGE STATE OF PLAY 2024: we have entered a grim millennia of climate consequences

 

According to the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO biennial report, State of the Climate 2024.......

Australia, on average, has warmed by 1.51°C ± 0.23°C since national air temperature records over the land mass of the continent began in 1910. While sea surface temperatures have increased by an average of 1.08°C since 1900.

Australia is not so slowly and very noticeably cooking.

There has been an increase in extreme heat events associated with the warming over land and in the oceans.

Australia’s warmest year on record was 2019, and 8 of the 9 warmest years on record have occurred since 2013.

This is what Australia's collective experience looks like expressed as a graph

State of the Climate 2024, 22 October 2024, p.2

Every decade since 1950 has been warmer than preceding decades. The warming in Australia is consistent with global trends, with the degree of warming similar to the overall average across the world’s land areas.

There has been an increase in extreme fire weather, and a longer fire season, across large parts of Australia since the 1950s. This has resulted in catastrophic bushfires in 1967, 1974-75, 1983, 2006-07, 2009 and 2019-20. Wildfires burning across millions of hectares, changing landscapes and communities, driving many native plant and animal species closer to extinction.

The track record with regard to rainfall has shown that:

Sustained heavy rainfall and associated flooding in much of Australia, particularly the east, is most common during La Niña, as illustrated by the multiple floods that occurred in eastern Australia in 2022. The 11 wettest years on record in eastern Australia were all influenced by La Niña, and many of eastern Australia’s most significant flood years, such as 1974, 2010−2011 and 2021–2022, have occurred during strong La Niña events, although significant flooding can sometimes occur in non-La Niña years.

Global concentrations of all major long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to increase. Global annual mean carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations reached 419.2 parts per million (ppm) in 2023 and the CO₂ equivalent (CO₂-e) of all greenhouse gases reached 524 ppm. These are the highest levels on Earth in at least 2 million years.

While global fossil fuel CO₂ emissions, the principal driver of the growth in CO₂ 

concentrations, are continuing to increase.

In Australia the latest Quarterly Update of Australia’s NationalGreenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2024 shows emissions were 440.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO₂-e) in the year to March 2024. On a quarterly basis, this means that national emission levels for the March quarter 2024 increased 0.6% (0.6 Mt CO₂-e) in trend terms.

National emissions are preliminarily estimated to be 441 Mt CO₂-e in the year to June 2024.

Actual and trend greenhouse gas emissions have not meaningfully decreased in the last four years according to data collated by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

These inescapable global & national facts mean that Australia's future now holds these scenarios:

Future

In the coming decades, Australia will experience ongoing changes to its weather and climate. The changes are projected to include:

• Continued increase in air temperatures, with more heat extremes and fewer cold extremes.

• Continued decrease, on average, in cool season rainfall across many regions of southern and eastern Australia, which will likely lead to more time in drought.

• More intense short-duration heavy rainfall events even in regions where the average rainfall decreases or stays the same.

• Continued increase in the number of dangerous fire weather days and a longer fire season for much of southern and eastern Australia.

• Further sea level rise and continued warming and acidification of the oceans around Australia.

• Increased and longer-lasting marine heatwaves that will affect marine environments such as kelp forests and increase the likelihood of more frequent and severe bleaching events in coral reefs around Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef.

• Fewer tropical cyclones, but with higher intensity on average, and greater impacts when they occur

through higher rain rates and higher sea level.

• Reduced average snow depth in alpine regions, but with variations from year to year.

Here in coastal north-east New South Wales the response to our changing climate by successive federal and state governments is: (i) to crowd more urban development onto land that is projected to be amongst the first dry land to experience tidal and/or permanent sea water inundation due to rising sea levels; and (ii) to coat building materials in heat reflecting paint while ignoring the fact that building design is now inadequate due to the fact that the north-east can now expect tropical hurricanes to form offshore on a 1 in 10 year basis.

The world's 8.2 billion people are now ‘Teetering on a planetary tight rope’. Why? Because at successive UN COPs since 2015 the majority of nation participants, political advisors & industry lobbyists have turned the process into a crude, state-sponsored shell game

 

UNITED NATIONS, UN News

24 October 2024 | Climate and Environment

‘Climate crunch time is here,’ new UN report warns

Fossil fuel power plants are one of the largest emitters of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

24 October 2024 Climate and Environment

Annual greenhouse gas emissions are at an all-time high, and urgent action must be taken to prevent catastrophic spikes in temperature and avoid the worst impact of climate change, according to a new report released on Thursday by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

In short, countries must start curbing emissions immediately, according to the UN Emissions Gap Report 2024.

“Climate crunch time is here,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.

“We need global mobilisation on a scale and pace never seen before, starting right now before the next round of climate pledges.”

If not, she warned, the 1.5°C goal to cap rising temperatures set in the Paris Agreement on climate change “will soon be dead, and well below two degrees Celsius will take its place in the intensive care unit”.

Climate goals could evaporate

Launched at the COP16 global biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia, the report tracks the gap between where global emissions are heading with current country commitments and where they ought to be to limit warming to well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C in line with the temperature goals set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

According to the report, the 1.5°C goal will be gone within a few years unless nations collectively commit to cut 42 per cent of annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 57 per cent by 2035 in the next round of nationally determined contributions and back this up with rapid action.

These self-defined contributions outline steps to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts – from drought, flooding and extreme weather events – securing necessary funds and updating plans every five years, the next time being in early 2025 ahead of the COP30 climate talks in Brazil.

‘Teetering on planetary tight rope’

Without dramatic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, the world could face an inevitable and catastrophic 3.1°C temperature rise, according to the report, which comes at a time when governments are failing to fully deliver on their promises.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the emissions gap is not an abstract notion. Indeed, there is a direct link between increasing emissions and increasingly frequent and intense climate disasters.

“We are teetering on a planetary tight rope,” he warned in a video message. “Either leaders bridge the emissions gap or we plunge headlong into climate disaster, with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most.

Affordable technologies can help

The COP29 UN Climate Change Conference commencing in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November should serve as a launchpad for a detailed discussion of such new ambitious national plans, he said, saying that the event “starts the clock for countries to deliver new national climate action plans by next year”.

“Governments have agreed to align these plans with 1.5 degrees,” he said.

That means they must drive down all greenhouse gas emissions and cover the whole economy, pushing progress in every sector, he said, urging the largest economies – the G20 members responsible for around 80 per cent of all emissions – to lead in this process.

There is hope, the UN chief stressed.

“Today’s report shows affordable, existing technologies can achieve the emissions reductions we need to 2030 and 2035 to meet the 1.5°C limit, but only with a surge in ambition and support,” he said.

Clean energy can change trajectory

The report shows significant potential to reduce emissions by up to 31 gigatons of CO₂ by 2030, which translates to about 52 per cent of emissions reported in 2023, and by 41 gigatons by 2035, helping to meet the 1.5°C target for both years.

Boosting solar photovoltaic and wind energy usage could contribute 27 per cent of the total reduction in 2030 and 38 per cent by 2035. Additionally, forest conservation could provide around 20 per cent of the necessary reductions in both years.

Other effective strategies include enhancing energy efficiency, electrifying various sectors and transitioning from fossil fuels in buildings, transport and industry, according to the report.

However, the report stated that realising even a fraction of this potential will demand unprecedented international cooperation and a comprehensive approach from governments, focusing on maximising socioeconomic and environmental benefits while minimising trade-offs.

The Emissions Gap Report 2004 titled "No more hot air … please! With a massive gap between rhetoric and reality, countries draft new climate commitments" can be downloaded at

https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/46404/EGR2024.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

Warning contained on Page 12 of the 2024 report:

Executive summary

All eyes on the next nationally determined contributions

The deadline for countries to submit their next nationally determined contributions (NDCs) with mitigation targets for 2035 is only a few months away, at the time of writing.

The fifteenth Emissions Gap Report has a special focus on what is required from these NDCs to maintain the possibility of achieving the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to well below 2°C, while pursuing 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial levels. Its core message is that ambition means nothing without action – unless global emissions in 2030 are brought below the levels implied by existing policies and current NDCs, it will become impossible to reach a pathway that would limit global warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot (>50 per cent chance), and strongly increase the challenge of limiting warming to 2°C (>66 per cent chance). The next NDCs must deliver a quantum leap in ambition in tandem with accelerated mitigation action in this decade.

The magnitude of the challenge is indisputable. At the same time, there are abundant opportunities for accelerating mitigation action alongside achieving pressing development needs and Sustainable Development Goals. Technology developments, particularly in wind and solar energy, continue to exceed expectations, lowering deployment costs and driving their market expansion. The updated assessment of sectoral emission reduction potentials included in this year’s report shows that the techno-economic emission reduction potential based on existing technologies and at costs below US$200 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) remains sufficient to bridge the emissions gap in 2030 and 2035. But this will require overcoming formidable policy, governance, institutional and technical barriers as well as an unprecedented increase in the support provided to developing countries along with a redesigning of the international financial architecture. [my yellow highlighting]

From Page 14 of the 2024 report:

Figure ES.2 The landscape of current NDC targets and implementation gaps for the G20 members collectively and individually by 2030, relative to 2019 emissions

Implied emissions trajectories of the G20 members towards net zero show reasons for concern

As at 1 June 2024, 101 parties representing 107 countries and covering approximately 82 per cent of global GHG emissions had adopted net-zero pledges either in law (28 parties), in a policy document such as an NDC or a long-term strategy (56 parties), or in an announcement by a high-level government official (17 parties). All G20 members except Mexico and the African Union (collectively) have set net-zero targets.

Overall, however, limited progress has been made since last year’s assessment on the key indicators of confidence in net-zero implementation, including legal status, the existence and quality of implementation plans and the alignment of near-term emissions trajectories with net-zero targets.

[my yellow highlighting]

On 16 June 2022 Australia submitted an updated version of its 2015 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the UNFCCC. The update committed Australia to reducing its emissions to 43% below 2005 levels by 2030 and, reaffirmed its commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. NOTE: This is not a commitment to reach absolute zero emissions.

Australia along with other UN member states will be obliged to lodge a new version of its 2022 NDC following COP29 negotiations in November 2024.

BACKGROUND

AUSTRALIA'S ENVIRONMENT 2003 REPORT,

released March 2024, excerpts:

Overview

The year 2023 was one of opposites, with environmental conditions swinging from wet to dry and back.

Globally, climate change accelerated with greenhouse gas emissions accelerating and global warming shattering new records in sea level rise, sea ice loss and temperatures in the oceans and atmosphere.

For Australia, 2023 was the eighth hottest year on record. The year began wet with average temperatures, continuing the La Niña conditions of the previous three years. Northern Australia experienced a wet monsoon season, providing relief after the previous dry years.

Wet conditions gave way to dry and unseasonably warm weather from May to October. River flows, wetlands and water reservoirs all declined from the very high 2022 levels but were still well above average.

Growing conditions were generally very good because of high soil water reserves at the start of the year and the warm and sunny cool season.

The warm and dry winter months did cause an early start of the fire season, as early as August in NSW. An intense fire season was expected but averted when wet conditions returned in November, despite a switch to El Niño climate circulation.

In December, very warm ocean temperatures east of Australia contributed to a cyclone and several storm systems that caused flooding across Queensland and Victoria.

The recovering Great Barrier Reef remained stable, but the impact of the high temperatures, a cyclone and river-borne sediments later in the year is not known yet.

The number of threatened species increased sharply, mostly as a delayed effect of the 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires.

An update to the Threatened Species Index in 2023 revealed continuous and compounding declines for threatened bird populations across Australia.

The greatest threats to Australia’s biodiversity continue to be climate change, invasive species and habitat destruction. Among invasive species, the further spread of cane toads is of significant concern.

Averaged of the year, most environmental indicators declined somewhat from very high values in 2022 but remained well above average, contributing to an overall Environmental Condition Score of 7.5......

Global Change

Globally, CO2 emissions and climate change are accelerating. 2023 saw the highest temperatures in the atmosphere and in the oceans ever recorded, the least sea ice ever observed, and a rapid increase in sea level. Atmospheric CO concentration increased by 2.6 ppm, which is 41% faster than the previous year and 16% faster than the average 2000–2022 growth rate. The rapid increase was due to a combination of ever-increasing fossil fuel emissions and a change to El Niño conditions during 2023. The average CO2 concentration reached 421 ppm, a 33% increase from 1960.

Global average air temperature was the highest on record by a considerable margin. It was 0.32 °C higher than the previous year and 1.18 °C above the 20th century average. The last ten years (2014–2023) all rank as the ten warmest on record.

The maximum ozone hole extent was 2% smaller than the previous year. It was 5% larger than the 2000–2022 average but 13% below the maximum extent observed in 2000. The ozone hole has not shrunk over the last two decades but may have stabilised.

Oceans absorb 93% of excess heat from climate change. Global ocean heat content increased by 4.8% compared to the previous year. Globally, sea surface temperatures were the highest on record in 2023.

The global mean sea level rose by 11.7 mm in 2023; the most rapid rise since 2015. Sea level has increased by 85 mm since 2000 and 101 mm since 1993.

Global Ocean Warming

+4.8% HEAT INCREASED FROM 2022

Sea ice extent was 2% less than the previous year in the Arctic and 8% less around Antarctica, where it broke the record set the previous year. Ice extent on both hemispheres combined was 5.0% less than the previous year, the lowest on record and 9.5% lower than the 2000–2022 average....

The full Australia's Environment 2023 Report can be read and downloaded at

https://www.wenfo.org/aer/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2023_Australias_Environment_Report_March2024_spreads.pdf

The NSW Northern Rivers region is facing an intractable problem - property insurance in the global climate crisis

 

The Climate Risk Group published a report in June 2024 - Going Under: The imperative to act in Australia's high flood risk suburbs

The report looked looked at risk of damage from riverine flooding to residential homes across Australia in 2030 under RCP 8.5 scenario and its analysis covered over 14,739,901 individual addresses and 14,995 suburbs, focussing on homes identified as High Risk Properties (HRP) by 2030 - properties where insurance may become unaffordable or withdrawn completely.

The Climate Group's investigations found:

• By 2030, 588,857 Australian homes are considered to be High Risk Properties: they carry a high risk of flood cover becoming prohibitively expensive or withdrawn, i.e risk becoming uninsurable.

• NSW is by far the most impacted state, with 206,622 individual homes identified as being at high risk of becoming uninsurable by 2030.

• This compares with 382,235 homes in all other states put together.

This report identified nine urban settlement areas in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales as being at risk in this scenario.

Tweed Heads South, Chinderah, Ballina, West Ballina and Grafton are identified as Black Zone localities. Black Zone Suburbs are suburbs where over 80% of residential properties are at high risk of becoming uninsurable. In these zones, property buy-back and community relocation will have to be considered.

Tweed Heads, Tweed Heads West, Lismore, South Lismore and Yamba are identified as being Red Zone localities. Red Zone Suburbs are suburbs where 50-80% of residential properties are at high risk of becoming uninsurable. With investment in adaptation these zones could still be viable.

On 16 May 2024, the Australian Senate created the Select Committee on the Impact of Climate Risk on Insurance Premiums and Availability. The committee is currently conducting an inquiry into the Impact of Climate Risk on Insurance Premiums and Availability and is to present a final report to parliament by 19 November 2024.

The Insurance Council of Australia has informed this inquiry of the industry's assessment of the national situation:

> Worsening extreme weather events, expansion of development in high-risk areas, growing asset values and higher inflation, particularly in the construction sector, are putting upward pressure on the affordability of insurance in Australia and across markets globally. This is widening the gap between those who can afford insurance and those who can’t, particularly in areas most vulnerable to extreme weather risk.

> To address insurance affordability over the short- to medium-term, it will be critical to continue to strengthen the resilience of communities and businesses so that they can better withstand the disasters Australia is already experiencing. This includes bolstering investment in resilience enhancing infrastructure, strengthening our building stock, and reforming land use planning to improve community safety and affordability when building new homes. After peril risk, the second biggest component of the cost of insurance premiums is taxation; the removal of state insurance taxes will also be an essential reform to provide immediate cost of living relief.

> Over the longer-term, in addition to consistent resilience investment, industry and governments need to continue to tackle the underlying driver of worsening extreme weather, climate change, by maintaining a focus on achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

> The insurance industry, in partnership with governments and regulators, is at the forefront of working to close the protection gap. For example, the Australian Government’s Hazards Insurance Partnership (HIP), focuses on bringing industry and government together to identify the high-risk areas around the country where insurance affordability challenges are growing, and tests and targets the appropriate policy solutions. Insurers are also working with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to undertake a Climate Vulnerability Assessment focused on the impacts of a warming climate on the availability of general insurance. The ICA and its members have also led key industry initiatives, including releasing an industry-wide climate change roadmap and producing new economic and actuarial analysis focused on the costs of extreme weather, uplifting Australia’s building codes and standards and strengthening state and federal resilience investment.

Northern Rivers newspaper The Echo in an article titled Climate change pushes up insurance, families going uninsured on 8 October 2024:

Financial Rights Legal Centre Senior Policy and Communications Officer Julia Davis told the enquiry, ‘The problem of insurance in a changing climate has reached a point where the market is not going to solve these problems. It is time for government intervention.

‘The repercussions of these events extend beyond financial strain for consumers. The consequences have been deeply personal with individuals facing emotional stress, strained relationships and trauma.’

Ms Davis also said managing insurance claims was ‘nothing short of retraumatising’ for many consumers.

Financial Counsellors Australia National Coordinator for Disaster Recovery, Vicki Staff said her organisation had seen people being quoted over $60,000 per year for insurance.

‘They are now having to find an insurance product that doesn’t fully cover them for the natural perils they are the most at risk of,’ she said.

Widening gap

Insurance Council of Australia Chief Operating Officer Kylie McFarlane told the enquiry, ‘The widening gap between those who can afford insurance and those who can not, especially in areas vulnerable to extreme weather risk, is an issue that we need to address collectively.

‘Insurance prices risk, and the most effective way to reduce pressure on premiums and reduce the protection gap is to mitigate or eliminate those risks.

CLIMATE CHANGE STATE OF PLAY 2024: “Now we are finding that atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing faster than ever. We must recognize that these are clear signals of the damage carbon dioxide pollution is doing to the climate system, and take rapid action to cut fossil fuel use as quickly as we can.”

In a month where Australia is breaking the lowest seasonal temperature records in parts of Australia just weeks after setting maximum temperatures records in another seasonal extreme - while some countries in Europe are either experiencing heatwaves or wildfires at the same time others are experiencing heavy snowfalls or catastrophic flooding - it is no longer being whispered but shouted out that "global warming is now becoming so extreme and non-linear that combined with habitat destruction, pollution, and overkilling of species it threatens collapse in the natural world including human systems within years not decades" [Ben See, climate activist, September 2024].

This is happening because although for decades now global heating of the Earth system has been unequivocal, detected acceleration of Earth heating has never been so sharply evident as it has become in the last two years.

2024 is also the year when evidence suggests that the rapid increase in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere being recorded may now be independent of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere by human activity. In other words, global warming's effect on the Earth may have passed a tipping point from which there is no return to a pre-industrial era global climate for millennia.

16 September 2024:

"The global temperature according to NASA data. Anyone who is still wondering about #ExtremeWeather and flooding has either missed out on several decades of climate research or deliberately repressed it. #Flood" **

Click on graph to enlarge

Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf, (@rahmstorf) Head of Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research & Professor of Physics of the Oceans, Potsdam University

** Text of tweet translated from German to English by Google Translate

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), News Release, 6 June 2024:

During a year of extremes, carbon dioxide levels surge faster than ever

The two-year increase in Keeling Curve peak is the largest on record

June 6, 2024 — Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than ever — accelerating on a steep rise to levels far above any experienced during human existence, scientists from NOAA and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego announced today....

From January through April, NOAA and Scripps scientists said CO2 concentrations increased more rapidly than they have in the first four months of any other year. The surge has come even as one highly regarded international report has found that fossil fuel emissions, the main driver of climate change, have plateaued in recent years.

“Over the past year, we’ve experienced the hottest year on record, the hottest ocean temperatures on record and a seemingly endless string of heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and storms,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “Now we are finding that atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing faster than ever. We must recognize that these are clear signals of the damage carbon dioxide pollution is doing to the climate system, and take rapid action to cut fossil fuel use as quickly as we can.” ....

Have you perhaps been wondering to what degree the health and wellbeing of women & girls will be valued as the global patriarchal structure shudders under the ongoing environmental, geopolitical, economic, and social shocks flowing from climate change? You are not the only one.

The Lancet

Vol 404 August 24, 2024

Many crises, one call to action: advancing gender equality in health in response to polycrises

Rajat Khosla, Gita Sen,

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,

Winnie Byanyima, Sima Bahous,

Debora Diniz, et al.

Published: July 24, 2024

The state of polycrises linked to concurrent conflict, climate catastrophe, the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing HIV epidemic, and geopolitical, economic, and social shocks is a cause of deep concern for the global health community. Polycrises, including the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, Sudan, and Myanmar, political movements in different countries that threaten to over-turn human rights and climate laws, or the flash floods in Bangladesh, Brazil, and Tanzania, have led to a new era likely to worsen gender inequalities and health challenges in terms of scale, severity, and complexity. Not only have these crises laid bare injustices and entrenched gender-based intersectional inequalities that exist in health, but they have also deepened and widened health disparities within and across countries, with differences starkly marked along lines of income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, and geographical location, among other factors.1

Taking stock of the gendered impact of polycrises is the first step towards forging a collective response from governments and the global health community. Globally, women make up the majority of extreme poor among people aged 15 years and older, with the gender poverty gap forecast to widen by 2030.2 Disproportionate job losses and limited access to financial resources in a climate of economic insecurity have pushed women into precarious work environments, jeopardising their health, integrity, and safety.3 The responsibilities of caregiving also intensifies during polycrises, with women and girls taking on greater responsibilities, including childcare, care of ill or dependent persons, and older persons care, and frequently neglecting their own health needs.4, 5 Clinic closures, resource shortages, and displacement due to crises disproportionately affect women's access to health services, such as reproductive health care, prenatal care, and safe childbirth.6 Even some high-income nations are among the 19 countries that had a higher maternal mortality ratio in 2020 compared with 1990. 7 Furthermore, conflict, climate displacement, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are contributing to concerning increases in gender-based violence and harmful practices such as child, early, and forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and son preference.7

The adverse impacts of polycrises on women's and girls' rights and health extend to their crucial roles as health workers. Women, who make up almost 70% of the global health workforce and 90% of nurses and midwives, are the front line of the health system; they deliver vital health services during crises and are often exposed to violence, especially in places affected by conflict.8, 9 Yet women in the health workforce are usually inadequately paid, insufficiently valued, and under-represented in leadership and decision-making positions.10

Alongside polycrises, there have been unprecedented attacks on the bodily autonomy, choices, and human rights of women and girls.7 Globally organised movements have mobilised against laws related to access to safe abortion and contraception, LGBTQI+ rights, and comprehensive sexuality education.7 This is visible in different forms, ranging from increasing levels of violence, hate speech, and misinformation campaigns to difficulties accessing funding for health and human rights organisations and the introduction of regressive laws or failure to eliminate discriminatory laws and policies.11

In this climate of competing priorities and recurrent crises, governments, UN agencies, donors, and civil society groups collectively hold immense power to ensure action is taken to advance and prioritise women's rights, gender equality, and human rights, including the right to health. This approach is paramount for mitigating and preventing the deepening of future crises.12 Evidence indicates that narrowing the gap in women's health would avoid 24 million life-years lost due to disability, add more than US$1 trillion to the global economy, and increase economic productivity by up to $400 billion.13 However, these investments need to be combined with enabling legislation and support for gender equality in health, including bodily autonomy and integrity more broadly. In this context, it is only through true collective action that we can bring about the changes that are direly needed. In particular, our joint efforts need to focus on three key areas.

First, funding and increased support are needed to strengthen investments, partnerships, and research led by grass-roots communities and feminist and women-led civil society organisations. Communities, notably, feminist and women-led civil society groups, hold a rich understanding of how crises play out and affect gender disparities, health, and rights of communities. They are well placed to document and deepen our understanding of this impact and identify contextually relevant solutions to advance gender equality and rights. During a crisis feminist and women-led organisations are also often directly involved in the provision of health services, including sexual and reproductive health services and information, in contexts where public goods and services are limited or no longer available.14, 15 Despite widespread evidence of the essential roles of feminist civil society and movements, investments in community-led research and partnerships are shrinking and being deprioritised in the context of polycrises.16, 17 Governments, UN agencies, and donors must act now and reverse this trend.

Second, policies are needed to support alignment across institutions and struggles for equality and rights. Fragmentation is happening at multiple levels and includes disjointed systems that promote siloes, competition, or polarisation between movements striving for gender equality and women's rights.18, 19 These challenges can manifest as the frequent exclusion of ministries of finance in discussions to ensure the right to health and wellbeing of women and girls, or as hostile attacks between gender equality and rights-based movements that unfold on social media platforms, quickly degenerating into the use of stigmatising labels and exclusionary language. Irrespective of how this fragmentation develops, it is fuelling mistrust and creating restrictive environments that hinder meaningful collaboration and collective action. It is imperative that collective efforts better integrate systems and processes and build links across struggles, particularly the multiple intersections of inequalities.

Third, financial responses at global, regional, and national levels need to be formulated so that they support gender equality and women's rights. Current financial responses during crises frequently impede the upholding of human rights and in turn deepen income inequalities.20 For instance, immense pressure on governments to focus on austerity policies and debt repayments during and after crises detracts from investments in essential public services and in communities that have been most impacted.20 The global financial architecture, right down to national budgets and ministries of health and finance, needs to have a more deliberate approach to investing in gender-related issues and women's rights to ensure support is provided to the communities and groups most affected by crises. Learning from and with feminist financing models offers a strong baseline to build from.21, 22 Not only will this approach support short-term stabilisation during crises, but it will also build long-term resilience and equity in resource mobilisation and allocation.

Global overlapping crises are worsening gender equality and health disparities. Addressing these issues requires us to unite political, health, and civil society leadership efforts towards reinforcing community-driven partnerships, reforming financial and health strategies to support equality, and integrating systems to create cohesive responses. Now is the crucial moment to act.

1 World Economic Forum. The global risks report 2023. 2023. https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2023/ (accessed July 8, 2024).

2 UN Women. From insights to action: gender equality in the wake of COVID-19. 2020. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/09/gender-equality-in-the-wake-of-covid-19 (accessed July 8, 2024).

3 International Labour Organization. Policy brief: a gender-responsive employment recovery: building back fairer. 2020. https://www.ilo.org/publications/gender-responsive-employment-recovery-building-back-fairer (accessed July 8, 2024).

4 UN Women. Gender alert: the gendered impact of the crisis in Gaza.2024. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/202401/Gender%20Alert%20The%20Gendered%20Impact%20of%20the%20Crisis%20in%20 Gaza.pdf (accessed July 8, 2024).

5 Power K. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the care burden of women and families. Sustainability Sci Pract Policy 2020; 16: 67–73.

6 World Economic Forum. Why we need more female voices while addressing humanitarian crises. 2022. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/05/listening-to-female-voices-can-stop-humanitarian-crises-harmingwomen-s-and-girls-health/ (accessed July 8, 2024).

7 UNFPA. Interwoven lives, threads of hope: ending inequalities in sexual and reproductive health and rights. 2024. https://www.unfpa.org/ swp2024 (accessed July 8, 2024).

8 Ignacio AR, Sales K, Tamayo RL. Seeking gender equality in the global health workforce. Think Global Health. March 8, 2024. https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/seeking-gender-equality-global-healthworkforce (accessed July 8, 2024).

9 WHO, Global Health Workforce Network, Women in Global Health. Closing the leadership gap: gender equity and leadership in the global health and care workforce. 2021. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240025905 (accessed July 8, 2024).

10 Phillips G, Kendino M, Brolan CE, et al. Women on the frontline: exploring the gendered experience for Pacific healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet Reg Health West Pac 2023; 42: 100961.

11 Petersen MJ. Religion, gender, and sexuality: three points on freedom of religion or belief. BYU Law International Center for Law and Religion Studies. Nov 21, 2022. https://talkabout.iclrs.org/2022/11/21/religiongender-and-sexuality/ (accessed July 8, 2024).

12 Percival V, Thoms OT, Oppenheim B, et al. The Lancet Commission on peaceful societies through health equity and gender equality. Lancet 2023; 402: 1661–722.

13 World Economic Forum. Closing the women’s health gap: a $1 trillion opportunity to improve lives and economies. 2024. https://www.weforum.org/publications/closing-the-women-s-health-gap-a-1-trillionopportunity-to-improve-lives-and-economies/ (accessed July 8, 2024).

14 UN. Human Rights Council. A/HRC/47/38: women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health rights in crisis. Report of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls. April 28, 2021. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc4738-womens-and-girlssexual-and-reproductive-health-rights-crisis (accessed July 8, 2024).

15 UN Women. Gender alert: voices of strength: contributions of Palestinian women-led organizations to the humanitarian response in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 2024. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/06/gender-alert-voices-of-strength-contributions-ofpalestinian-women-led-organizations-to-the-humanitarian-response-inthe-occupied-palestinian-territory (accessed July 8, 2024).

16 The Young Feminist Fund, The Association for Women’s Rights in Development’s Young Feminist Activism Program. The global state of young feminist organizing. 2016. https://youngfeministfund.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/05/Global-State-of-Young-Feminist-Organizing.pdf (accessed July 8, 2024).

17 Aho E, Grinde J. Shrinking space for civil society—challenges in implementing the 2030 Agenda. Forum SYD. 2017. https://www.forumciv.org/sites/ default/files/2018-03/Shrinking-Space%20%20Challenges%20in%20implementing%20the%202030%20agenda.pdf (accessed July 8, 2024).

18 UN Women. Discussion paper. Democratic backsliding and the backlash against women’s rights: understanding the current challenges for feminist politics. 2020. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2020/Discussion-paper-Democratic-backsliding-and-the-backlash-againstwomens-rights-en.pdf (accessed July 8, 2024).

19 Touimi-Benjelloun Z, Sandler J. Collective power for gender equality: an unfinished agenda for the UN. 2022. United Nations University International Institute for Global Health. August, 2022. http://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:8897/Collective_Power_for_Gender_Equality.pdf (accessed July 8, 2024).

20 UN. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. A world of debt report 2024: a growing burden to global prosperity. 2024. https://unctad.org/publication/world-of-debt (accessed July 8, 2024).

21 International Labour Organization, UN Women. Financing social protection: feminist alternatives to austerity. 2023. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/financing_social_protection_en.pdf (accessed July 8, 2024).

22 Hessini L. Financing for gender equality and women’s rights: the role of feminist funds. Gender Development 2020; 28: 357–76.