♪ >> this is al jazeera. russia's president has proclaimed the annexation of four ukrainian regions. vladimir putin joined thousands at moscow's red square for the public celebration. he used his veto power to block a human resolution. >> it is worth noting that most of the security council supported this resolution, although it was vetoed by russia. but there were four countries

that decided they were going to abstain -- china, india, brazil, and gabon. what happens next is that this will now be taken by the u.s. to the general assembly of the united nations, where all 193 members states get their view, and a similar resolution we expect to be put to the vote at some point next week. >> denmark's energy agency says two gas leaks of major pipelines that run from russia to germany are over the weekend. the nord stream 1 and two pipelines, which transport gas under the baltic sea. eu is calling for an investigation while russia has accused the west of sabotage. eu members have agreed to cut power consumption. they are also going to import levees on energy companies. they are hoping to reduce energy prices which absorb since the war in ukraine. burkina faso's president has

been overthrown by the military. an army officer made the announcement on state television. hurricane ian has made landfall in south carolina. the storm dropped to a post-tropical cyclone. heavy rains and strong winds have knocked out power to more than 170,000 customers and left many ways along the coast of water -- many roadways along the coast underwater. those are the headlines. coming up next, "inside story." ♪ folly: hurricane ian could be the deadliest storm to ever hit the u.s. state of florida. it is one of many extreme

weather events this year that have left millions homeless. it is making these disasters more common and intense, and how do we better prepare? this is "inside story." ♪ folly: welcome to the program. i am folly bah thibault. hurricane ian is one of the as powerful storms to hit the u.s. in years. florida and south carolina -- north and south carolina bracing for the worst. it made landfall on florida's southwest coast wednesday. record storm surges destroyed homes and cut power to more than 2 million people. scientists name what they call -- blame what they call rapid intensification for making the hurricane destructive. that is when when speeds

increase by 60 kilometers per hour a day. these storms are becoming more common due to warmer oceans from climate change. the u.s. president has declared a major disaster. >> this could be the deadliest hurricane in florida's history. the numbers are still unclear, but we are hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life. folly: so, which countries have experienced the most extreme weather events this year? in august, the most severe flooding in pakistan's recent history, leaving a third of the country underwater. from june to august, heat waves set records across europe, leading to for his -- leading to forest fires and routes. -- forest fires and droughts. since january, floods have affected most of africa, killing just under 2000 people. nigeria was the worst affected.

let's bring in our guests for today's "inside story." in tallahassee, bradford johnson, assistant professor of geography and a phd in meteorology at florida state university. in the netherlands, the director of the red cross climate sister and a professor of climate and disaster resilience. and from islamabad, fahad saeed. welcome to the program. thank you for joining us. radford johnson in tallahassee, let me start with you. hurricane ian went from a tropical storm to a hurricane ian less than 24 hours, and it is not the only storm that has recently experienced this rapid intensification, as they are calling it. what is behind this and what is making these storms more intense and more frequent?

bradford: thank you for having me. it is, like you mentioned, a long line in a series of storms over the past five to 10 years that have found their way into the gulf of mexico. we have found out that the environment is conducive to the strengthening of storms in the gulf of mexico. it is tracking above average from historical values. from hurricane ian, the temperatures in the water were over 30 degrees south this -- 30 degrees celsius in the caribbean. this, along with the conducive atmosphere conditions, allow the storm, like its predecessors to effectively drop pressure quickly, causing wind speeds to ramp up very fast. folly: so global warming, you would say, is affecting this, leading to the storm intensification. bradford: a preponderance of

research has shown that morning around the globe causing warmer temperatures not only in the tropical oceans, but also areas north. it is above average from what we have expected to see for the last 30, 50, even 100 years. particularly with the mexico, the loop current which feeds water from the western caribbean , and you might know it feeds the gulf stream, which actually heats europe on the latter end of it, this water has been tracking warmer as well. it is a relatively deeper pool of warm water which acts as more fuel for these storms. folly: fahad. talk about your experience in pakistan. what role has climate change played in the events we have seen in that region this year? fahad: thanks for having me. we have also found the role of

climate change exacerbating the impacts of the two extremes we have witnessed this year. a near heatwave in the months of march and april that pakistan witnessed was also record-breaking. it was supposed to be a time of spring in pakistan, but parts of pakistan rose above 50 degrees centigrade. it was unprecedented for the time of the year. there was a study, and the finding was that heatwave made it more likely by 30 times as compared to the world without climate change. similarly, the flooding was the worst the country has ever

experienced since tracking began. a similar study was conducted, and are finding from that study was that intensity from the monsoon rain falls into two months, in the months of july and august, the intensity was increased by 75% as compared to the world without climate change. so we have quantitative analysis that climate change has played a very important role in excess rebating -- he exacerbating the impacts of both events. folly: we talking specifically about human-induced climate change? how do socioeconomic factors intersect with the impacts? how is it worsening the effects on people and the environment? maarten: first of all, i think it is important to underline what fahad just said about the

strong quantitative evidence that in many of these individual disasters, we now have a very clear fingerprint and anthropogenic climate change. we can draw a straight line from the missions of greenhouse gases to the more intense natural hazards we are facing. however, it is always a combination of those hazards with the vulnerability of societies that are hit by them that then defines the impacts. you may know the classical story of bangladesh, where we have also been confronted with super storms in the past couple of years. for instance, the super typhoon hitting bangladesh and india in the 1970's, a storm like that would have killed hundreds of thousands of people literally, but two years ago it was only1 24 casualties. still tragic, but we were able to avoid many deaths. that does not mean there was no distraction, and climate change is still posing a heavy toll in those countries, but it shows

there is a lot that can be done to avert the very worst impacts. it is clear we need to invest much more in those sorts of capacities in line with a more volatile climate. folly: before we talk about what more can be done, i want to ask you, martin, about the impact, to give us an example of the direct impact of these disasters. what are the costliest as weather-related incidents? fahad: the costliest -- bradford: costliest -- maarten: the costliest are often in the united states. five years ago, we did a similar attribution study that fahad was just talking about for hurricane harvey in houston that was over $100 billion, and three times more likely due to climate change. we have those numbers in terms of huge costs in places like that. talking about human toll, it is often places like pakistan, the current drought in north africa

is one of our biggest concerns in terms of humanitarian concerns at the moment. hundreds of thousands of people dying if we do not provide food there quickly. the finger print of climate change in those contexts is often more difficult because we do not have perfect data. but it is the same pattern of both rising hazards and five rainy seasons in a row failing, but also very high vulnerability due to the poverty, the aftermath of covid, and conflicts in the region. that is always the pattern. those come together. and in those poor regions, you do not get a very high economic toll, but when suffering is multiplying. folly: bradford, martin mentioned the data, and i guess having good data is key. is the climate crisis making forecasting more difficult? bradford: i would argue when it comes to forecasting, our forecasters have more tools

available to them right now and more data available than 80 other time in history, however, there are areas that are pretty big spots that do impact our ability to forecast. for instance, hurricane dorian, a few years back, it may have actually delayed the investigation because of the amount of saharan dust present over the tropical atlantic at that time. because we know saharan dust is a product of desert and vacation and drought. but once hurricane dorian was april to develop -- was able to develop, it may have developed faster because of the sea temperatures it tapped into off the bahamas and the coast of florida and moving up the eastern coast of the united states. and we think about the actual forecast themselves -- when we think about the actual forecast themselves, the cone of uncertainty we like to focus on,

it is becoming pretty evident now that even other factors that could be possibly related to climate change, like the slowing of when they approach the coastline of north america, are also making it more difficult on forecasters to communicate what the hazards might be, particularly when it relates to inland flooding, which most people do not associate with tropical cyclone windfalls. folly: we have started talking about the impact, but we've also got to talk about what more can be done to prevent these disasters from becoming so frequent and intense. hurricane ian could be one of the most expensive ones, as you heard from martin. an early estimate put the cost of damage at up to $47 billion for florida alone. economists say funding to combat climate change is facing a twofold battle, mitigation and adaptation. the u.s. military is injecting cash into adapting hardware and infrastructure to cope with extreme weather after spaces were damaged by hurricanes.

the pentagon's climate adaptation is $3.1 billion. the international monetary fund recommends a tax on coal and natural gas that is more than the amount being pumped into the atmosphere. the world bank delivered a record $31.7 billion this year to address global climate change, mostly to developing nations. just under half of that will be spent on adapting infrastructure. let me come to you, fahad. there are ways to reduce the widespread destruction these storms leave in their wake. how do we better prepare, in your view, for these intense weather events in the future. how do we reduce the damage and loss? maarten: -- fahad: the first thing is, also the other speakers have said that we have found the fingerprints of climate change already.

so the heat waves and flooding are not in this part of the world, in pakistan, but because of climate change, because of warmer temperatures, we are now having these events more frequently, and also the intensity of those events, they are crossing the red limit of [indiscernible] people are acclimatized for hundreds of years. another problem, currently we are 1.2 degrees centigrade warmer than the pre-industry world. i would say the first thing is the world should come together and decide that we need to reduce the emissions so as to curtail the temperature to 1.5 degrees centigrade. for a country like pakistan, every degree matters at the moment, because now we have connotative assessment --

quantitative assessment of the role of climate change exacerbating the intensity of these hazards. the first thing i would say is to contain the greenhouse gas emissions, and the other thing is to, of course, provide the necessary assistance for the countries like pakistan, because the contribution of pakistan and total greenhouse gas emissions at the present level is less than 1%. if you consider the historical emissions starting from two and a half centuries ago, the contribution falls to 2.3%. this is a big issue of climate justice. so the countries like pakistan, and there are other countries that have contributed literally nothing to the greenhouse gas emissions. but on the other hand, those are the ones that are at the forefront, bearing the brunt of climate change. especially if you look within pakistan.

the people associated with every culture, they have nothing to contribute. they don't have strong houses, well built houses that can face the fury of the nature in terms of these extreme events. so they are the ones at the frontlines. there is a huge problem of climate injustice, not only at the global scale, but also the social injustice within the country as well. folly: let's bring in maarten. we hear your thoughts. as fahad just said, with these extreme weather events the super floods in pakistan, it is countries that contribute less to the carbon emissions that are the worst affected. what can be done for these countries and who pays the price for climate reparations? maarten: it is very clearly those countries, and especially the poorest people in those countries are paying the highest

price. it is unfair because they have contributed at least to the problem -- the least to the problem. that is an ethical issue in front of world leaders at the moment as they were meeting recently at the united nations general assembly and will be meeting again in egypt in early november. in a very practical sense, the recipe is simple. the intergovernmental panel on climate change has assessed all the worlds's evidence and has concluded that we are already seeing aggravated humanitarian disasters do to climate change today. all the examples we have been discussing show that. they are also very clear that every 10th of a degree will add to that burden. we are reaching limits to adaptation today and we will reach more and more as the temperature rise continues. it is critical that we reduce emissions as quickly as we can, but the damage to some extent is already there in terms of emissions that have been done in the past, so we need to adapt that the climate that is -- to

the climate that has already changed. it will get more challenging in these vulnerable countries. we need to see neighboring investment to help these most desperate places to compare for -- folly: maarten, when you have other issues like poverty and the coronavirus pandemic, it becomes difficult for climate plans to work, because governments, especially in these lower income countries, have other priorities, so how do you bridge that gap? there is a big difference, i understand, between the money being spent right now to prevent climate change and the one in terms of adaptation and so on, so how do you bridge that gap? maarten: that is a big challenge, and even our humanitarian support in the aftermath of disasters is under heavy strain. we are not reaching all the people that are in need of help, and we are struggling to cope with the rising toll of all these events around the world.

that in itself is already a challenge, but only a response is not going to be enough. we found out in the humanitarian world that just responding more and more is not going to do it. by 2050, we could see a doubling of the funding needed to help people in need, depended on the climate scenario, but also how we prepare. i think that is the key message. it is going to be cheaper and more effective to provide some of that funding in advance. it is indeed challenging in places that are really poor that face so many constraints at the same time. with covid, for instance, we are seeing the double whammy of people having been left very poor after covid and then struggling even harder to cope with the shocks coming to them from the climate. but many of the solutions needed are not super expensive. the early warning systems that have been so effective in bangladesh require planning in advance, require collaboration between the meteorological service and the country to make

sure that the warnings for such a major storm, which we have heard have been getting so much better in recent decades, that are communicating effectively to those local people on my and those local people know what to do and have shelters in place they can go to. all of that is a little bit of infrastructure investment, a lot of capacity investment. yes, we do need a lot of funding, particularly to cope with the impacts we are already seeing, but it is also putting it to the best use. folly: radford, from a meteorological perspective, how can we better prepare for these extreme weather events because of climate change. folly: i would like to actually talk briefly about what he just mentioned in that it is not just a state-sponsored physical issue that they are dealing with as far as the infrastructure. we are also, particularly in western nations, it is imperative that private sector companies effectively become the

engine toward this. private sector and the markets dictate so much of what goes on with regards to investments in these parts of the world. it is going to be up to us for climate scientists to understand their actual desires are. for the most part, it is the satisfaction of the shareholders. for the most part, they are not going to do it out of the kindness of their hearts, but we have to understand what the value proposition is for these companies and how their operations could become more profitable in the you to render a renewable, less invasive use of the world's resources, resulting in the minimization of greenhouse gas emissions. as meteorologists and scientists, moving forward, i think we have been increasing confidence, particularly when you read the ipcc reports of

what the impacts of climate and climate change are. unfortunately, where we are at right now, we will probably be in the coolest year for the rest of our lives. however, that does not mean it has to be the beginning of an era of destructiveness, as long as we understand and are communicating not only with our local governments and state governments and also national and international levels, but also with those companies and communities and shareholders and those disadvantaged and underrepresented communities who bear the brunt of the actual impacts of these storms. folly: fahad in islamabad, what actions can be practically considered not just by governments and authorities, but also by people to scale up and reduce the risk of these climate change related disasters? fahad: before coming to your question, i will just take a few seconds to say it is not only about the climate finance, but not along with that, we also

look forward from developed countries to support countries like pakistan the transfer of technology. climate change is surprising us every year, almost. our climate models do not perform well in this part of the world, because those models are developed in the global north. we also need some kind of support in the development of tools catering to this region, as well as capacity building support, so that is very important. coming to your question, of course countries like pakistan need to put their house in order as well. so the local governments are nonexistent in pakistan.

you can imagine that if you do not have a local government and you face such a calamity, you are definitely going to struggle. we also need to learn from other countries of the region how to cope with these kinds of disasters once they happen. there is a lot to be done, and it is very important for a country like pakistan to start a grand debate around climate change, because unfortunately for developing countries, climate change does not come at the top of the political agenda. we have many other problems. just to put things in perspective, pakistan's total exports per year is almost $30 billion. the estimated economic damages from the flooding only -- not talking about the heat wave, but only because of flooding, it is estimated to be over $30

billion. a couple of weeks back, pakistan was meeting before imf for a $1.7 billion bailout package. of course, the hurricane in florida, in the absolute terms, is much higher, your number, $100 billion, but for a country like pakistan that is already struggling, the size of the economy is very small. this is a huge impact because of this flooding. it is a global phenomenon, and we need to bring the world to the table. my fellow speakers said that pop 21 is going to be very important. folly: kid needs a global collaboration. thank you very much for joining us. and thank you for watching. you can always watch this program again any time by visiting our website at aljazee ra.com. you can also go to our facebook

page, facebook.com/aj insidestory. you can also follow us on twitter. for the whole team indo hock, thank you for watching. -- the whole team in"@4

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ yaara bou melhem: new zealand, aotearoa, is blessed with fresh water, with its turquoise rivers and lakes and snow-capped mountains. its pristine and dramatic landscapes are the sets