Cheat Sheet: Climate Change in Mozambique
By Shahinaz Geneid
The debate over both the existence of climate change and how to address it is one of the central issues of this century. But while these debates continue, the city of Dondo in central Mozambique has become the “first city to be completely devastated by climate change.” Located 30 kilometers outside of Beira, Mozambique’s second most populous city behind the capital of Maputo, Dondo has become what many consider to be the first complete casualty of any city as a direct result of climate change. Cyclone Idai, which has brought great damage to not only Mozambique but also multiple other Southern African countries, has brought mass displacement and destruction in its wake.
In Dondo, more than 17,000 families have been displaced and over a dozen schools destroyed across the city. Nearby Beira, the capital of Sofala province where Dondo is located, has also faced damage to over ninety percent of the city, becoming the “worst-hit” major city to be affected by the cyclone.
While international aid organizations, led by the Red Cross and Red Crescent, have been in the country providing food, shelter, and medical aid since March 14th when the cyclone began, the scope of the damage is immense. The Red Cross reports, “Almost everything is destroyed. Communication lines have been completely cut and roads have been destroyed. Some affected communities are not accessible.” As a result, it has become nearly impossible to provide the level of aid required to support the local population in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai.
Meanwhile, experts on climate change have warned that this type of occurence will become more and more common in the future if climate change is not addressed. Poor countries, such as Mozambique “will feel the impacts first and worst (and already are) because of vulnerable geography and lesser ability to cope with damage from severe weather and rising sea levels,” and climate change will ultimately be “awful for everyone but catastrophic for the poor.” If climate change is not addressed, particularly by the world’s wealthiest countries, who are responsible for seventy-nine percent of carbon emissions produced up until 2011, then it will be countries such as Mozambique that ultimately bear the burden.
