Australia is being encouraged to take action at significant international forums in order to prevent the impending catastrophe of hundreds of thousands of African children starving to death.
The Albanese administration is being urged by a number of the country’s relief and development organizations to take the lead in the world and push for more humanitarian help for Somalia at the COP27 and the G20.
According to them, Somalia should be included in the emergency help pledged as part of a $150 million famine protection program.
In order to assist developing nations with climate adaptation and mitigation measures, the organization urged Australia should re-join the UN’s Green Climate Fund.
November is the “final great chance to stop hundreds of thousands of children in the Horn of Africa from starving to death,” according to Reverend Tim Costello of the organization Help Fight Famine.
At COP27 and the G20, the world must take action, and Australia must not turn a blind eye, he said.
“Our largest polluters, the developed countries, should accept responsibility by compensating and assisting our underdeveloped nations.”
As Somalia endures its worst drought in 40 years, the UN predicts that more than 300,000 people there would go hungry within weeks.
Climate change is being blamed for the harsh weather.
Due to Moscow’s ban on exports in the Black Sea, Somalia also depends on Russia and Ukraine for goods, mainly wheat.
The climate summit in Egypt this week has as its major priorities climate financing and loss-and-damage payments for impoverished countries.
Under a new loss-and-damage approach, wealthy polluters would make up for the destruction caused by climate change in developing countries.