Even as the world celebrates the Golden Jubilee of Earth day amid a dreaded pandemic like Covid-19, it is incumbent on all of us to pause and reflect on how well the activities of the human race have impacted the environment.

Water for Rural Africa (WRA) wishes to use this year’s commemoration to call on all African leaders to increase their national commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. Climate change denotes the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the support systems that make our world habitable. The sustainability of the planet will determine the quality of life and that of water.

The time is now for citizens of the world to call for greater global determination       to tackle our climate crisis. Unless every nation in the world rises up with urgency and ambition, we are certainly entrusting current and future generations to a hazardous future.

If the Covid-19 catastrophe has shown the world one thing, it is that, our world is not sustainable. If a simple virus can just bring world economies on their knees in a short space of time, it suggests we are not considering long-term measures with regards to the existence of humanity.

According to Greta Thunberg, the Swedish Climate Activist, there is a strong correlation between the pandemic and the environmental crisis. Deforestation and wildlife trade heighten the likelihood of viruses leaping the species boundary, air pollution increasing human vulnerability by weakening respiratory systems and the expansion of air travel allows epidemics to spread more quickly.

Going forward, the post-pandemic recovery of the world should focus chiefly on the creation of green jobs, an economic shift from grey concrete to green nature, the incorporation of climate risk into financial systems and international cooperation on climate action.

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