Latest news with #Global South
Mail & Guardian
5 days ago
- Science
- Mail & Guardian
People back climate policy when weather events feel personal, new study finds
The effects of extreme weather events are disproportionately felt in countries in the Global South. Most people are more likely to support A few extreme weather events also seem to influence support for climate policies in different ways, according to the team of authors, which included Marina Joubert, an associate professor at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology at Stellenbosch University. The Nature Climate Change , found that although extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense because of climate change, little is known about how experiencing these events — and attributing them to climate change — affects support for climate policies, particularly in the Global South. The effects of extreme weather events are disproportionately felt in countries in the Global South. 'Even though the The study shows that when people connect extreme weather such as heatwaves, floods and droughts to climate change, they're much more likely to support climate action, Joubert said. 'This matters for countries like South Africa where climate impacts are already being felt. One surprising finding from our study is that people in Africa, especially in South Africa, are less likely to say that climate change is behind extreme weather events,' she said. 'That's not because the weather is not changing, but because climate change awareness is still low.' To build support for climate solutions, there is an urgent need for better public communication that explains to people what is happening and why, Joubert said. The researchers assessed support for the following five climate policies: increasing taxes on carbon-intense foods, raising taxes on fossil fuels, expanding infrastructure for public transportation, increasing the use of sustainable energy, and protecting forested and land areas. They used combined large-scale natural and social science data from 68 countries to develop a measure of how many people were exposed to extreme weather events — and to explore whether this exposure, along with people's beliefs about whether climate change has affected extreme weather events over the last decades, predict their support for climate policies. They also comparatively assessed the link between the size of exposed populations, defined as the average annual proportion of a country's total population exposed to a specific weather-related hazard, to several extreme weather events and support for climate policies. They found that in line with previous research, increasing carbon taxes received the lowest support, with only 22% and 29% of people, respectively, indicating they very much supported increased taxes on carbon-intensive foods and fossil fuels. Protecting forested and land areas, by contrast, was a popular policy option, with 82% supporting it very much and only 3% not supporting it at all. The second-most supported policy was increasing the use of sustainable energy, with 75% supporting it very much, and only 5% not supporting it at all. The research showed that not all climate policies are equally popular, revealing that people around the world, including in Africa, are far more supportive of clean energy and forest protection than carbon taxes. 'That's an important message for governments. If you want public buy-in, you have to focus on solutions that people understand and support,' Joubert said. The study provides global evidence that subjective attribution of extreme weather events to climate change is associated with greater policy support for climate mitigation, the researchers said. 'Overall, different extreme weather events appear to have different relationships with climate policy support. This pattern highlights the importance of comparative analyses that consider different types of events,' the study said. 'In line with previous studies we also found that subjective attribution interacts with exposure to European winter storms, heatwaves, heavy precipitation and tropical cyclones to predict climate policy support.' Mere exposure to extreme weather events might therefore not suffice to increase policy support unless individuals link these events to climate change. While larger exposure to extreme events was not found to be related to policy support, except for wildfires, the researchers could not rule out that changes in the frequency of extreme weather events over time might be sufficient to shift support. 'Nevertheless, our data suggest that if individuals attribute extreme weather events to climate change, support for climate policies is higher regardless of whether the events are more frequent.' The reverse causal relationship is also possible: people who are supportive of climate policies are more likely to attribute extreme weather to climate change, the study said, noting that longitudinal panel studies are needed to investigate the nature and direction of this relationship. The research also found strong differences in support across countries and policies. Support for climate policies was particularly high in African and Asian countries, average in Australia, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom, and below the global average in several European countries, such as Czechia, Finland and Norway. 'Participants who identified as men, were younger, more religious, had higher education, higher income, left-leaning politics and who lived in urban areas were more likely to support climate policies,' the report said. For some events, such as heatwaves and tropical cyclones, the effects of exposure on climate policy support were stronger for individuals who attribute extreme weather events to climate change more strongly. 'One possible explanation is that these types of extreme weather events allow for management strategies that can directly reduce the hazard itself, such as man-made flood protections, irrigation systems, prescribed burn-offs and land-use policies. 'Therefore, people may be more likely to support policies pertaining to law enforcement or economic regulations instead of climate change mitigation.' The researchers however pointed out that exposure to most types of extreme events did not predict people's support for climate policies. The extent to which people attributed extreme weather events to climate change varied across regions of the world. People in South America most strongly agreed that the occurrence of extreme weather events has been affected by climate change over the last decades, especially in Brazil and Colombia. This might be explained by the fact that belief in human-caused climate change and self-reported personal experience of extreme weather events are high in Latin America. People in Northern Europe and Africa, on the other hand, were less likely to attribute extreme weather events to climate change. In Africa, this could be explained by low levels of climate change awareness and belief in human-caused climate change across the continent. The researchers called for more studies about effective climate change communication on types of extreme weather events that are not typically associated with climate.
Arab News
12-07-2025
- Science
- Arab News
Saudi communications minister urges decisive action, global cooperation to address AI divide
GENEVA: Saudi Arabia's minister of communications and IT has called for 'decisive international collaboration' to address the inequality in computing infrastructure that could leave other nations behind in this era of artificial intelligence. In a keynote address at the 160th anniversary of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Minister Abdullah Al-Swaha cited the 'concentration of computing power in a few regions, the lack of AI infrastructure in many countries, and the limited participation of the Global South in shaping governance frameworks and regulatory policies.' 'Today, the world faces an 'existential gap' due to alarming disparities in access to AI technologies,' the minister said, according to the Saudi Press Agency. Alswaha said the world could learn lessons from the past phases of technological transformation: the analog era, which took over a century to connect 800 million people, and the digital era, which linked 5.5 billion individuals in just 50 years but still left 2.6 billion unconnected. In the AI era, he said, current gaps exist in computing infrastructure, data availability, and algorithms that could slow the advances needed to support human progress. Al-Swaha reiterated Saudi Arabia's 'unwavering commitment' to support and lead international efforts to close the emerging technological divides. He highlighted Saudi Arabia's efforts to address these gaps, citing the digital empowerment of women in the Kingdom — who now have a participation rate of about 35 percent — and the Kingdom's top global rankings in digital competitiveness for two consecutive years. He also noted that researchers at Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) rank among the top one percent globally in scientific citations, offering hope for the future of AI. He likewise underlined the Kingdom's progress in data protection regulations and the development of 'language models that promote inclusive access to technology for diverse communities.' Al-Swaha further cited the HUMAIN project launched by Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman "to provide the full spectrum of AI capabilities, from advanced processors to top talent, and to position the Kingdom as a global AI pioneer." 'The Kingdom's efforts are a direct response to urgent global challenges,' he said. Al-Swaha emphasized that the next 10 years will be critical for bridging the divides. He called for multination 'partnerships under the umbrella of the ITU to build a fair, safe, and inclusive AI ecosystem that supports sustainable development and enhances human well-being.'
South China Morning Post
11-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Beijing Declaration on civilisational diversity is a vision for peace
Beijing's convening of a dialogue on global civilisations comes at a special time. Themed 'Safeguarding the diversity of human civilisations for world peace and development', the two-day meeting of ministers and representatives from about 140 countries and regions is happening in a year in which the world marks 80 years since the end of the second world war and the founding of the United Nations. Participants at the dialogue adopted a Beijing Declaration and agreed on a list of 110 cooperation projects. While the global community seeks lasting peace and sustainable development, conflicts and confrontations continue to intensify. This is fundamentally the result of certain countries still following the law of the jungle and harbouring a Cold War mentality. The Chinese people share a destiny with the peoples of the Global South. We believe development should not be monopolised by a handful of countries, and security should not be exclusive to one country while making other countries insecure. President Xi Jinping has put forward China's Global Development Initiative Global Security Initiative and Global Civilisation Initiative for a vision of shared development, security and diversity in the world. Only with shared development and security can we achieve sustainable development and lasting peace. But to have that, we need a fundamental change in our thinking about civilisations. We should abandon the Hobbesian fear of falling prey in a world ruled by brute force. Mankind should not live like fearful wolves in a jungle; it only leads to a mentality of civilisational superiority and theories of a clash of civilisations . We want to replace these with cross-civilisational dialogues to recognise and affirm the diversity of civilisations.
