Last month I saw my cousin Indra, who returned from Kenya. There she conducted research on impending food shortages due to climate change. In the study area, Kenyan farmers mainly grow maize, but this crop cannot tolerate drought well. Due to climate change, dry periods are becoming more common. Therefore, it would be better to plant grains such as sorghum, which can withstand drought better.
Walking through fields and along dusty roads, Indra and her colleagues visited more than 600 farmers to hear what it takes for these farmers to grow more sorghum. This is less simple than it seems at first glance. For example, there must be enough demand for sorghum to switch.
About the author
Ingrid Robbins Professor of Corporate Ethics at Utrecht University. In December, she became a guest columnist on volkkrant.nl/opinie. Columnists are free to express their opinions and do not have to abide by the rules of journalistic objectivity. Read our guidelines here.
Previous contributions to this discussion can be found at the bottom of this article.
Indra said Kenyans are keenly aware of climate change. “They see the weather being more extreme, which is causing a lot of damage. They see how the seasons are changing. The Kenyans I spoke to also pointed out that the cause of climate change lies in the rich countries, but it is the poor countries that are bearing the brunt.”
I thought about this when I read the Freedom Party’s election manifesto. The Dutch people who gave their vote to the Freedom Party are not just voting for more xenophobia and less democracy (because Wilders is the sole ruler of the Freedom Party). They also vote for vague promises in the areas of health care, housing, and social security, without a financing plan. They vote for anti-science ideas. PVV climate policy falls into the latter category.
Geert Wilders does not want to make any additional efforts to reduce CO2, and according to him, the entire climate policy could “go through the shredder.” We can raise dams and widen rivers. That’s all it takes.
I would like to see Wilders and convinced Freedom Party voters in dialogue with these Kenyan farmers, whose livelihoods are threatened by the consequences of climate change. Or with the people of Pakistan who survived the deadly floods last year. About 1,700 people died, and millions lost everything they owned. Or closer to home, in conversation with relatives of 220 Belgians and Germans who drowned in July 2021 due to severe floods.
All scientific studies indicate that what Wilders writes about climate is nothing more than mere propaganda: he not only denies the seriousness of climate change and its consequences, but also denies who is responsible for it.
Wilders claims that none of the expected disaster scenarios came true. Science shows that the increasing incidence of deadly floods and crop failures is caused by climate change. He claims that we can adapt easily through higher dams and water management. But this will not compensate for all the negative consequences of climate change in the Netherlands, and of course will do nothing about the consequences in poor countries.
More extreme weather events caused by climate change relate not only to higher water levels, but also to prolonged periods of drought and damage caused by increasingly violent storms. If we do not want further climate change to lead to all these avoidable deaths and far-reaching damage, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to zero as quickly as possible.
We can only slow further climate change if every country takes action. This requires the agreements contained in the Paris Agreement From 2015.
Wilders says it doesn’t matter what the Netherlands does, because we are a small country. But this is not a relevant comment. What matters here are the emissions we emit per person – which, historically and currently, are much higher than the emissions emitted by humans in developing countries. That’s how he punches a Dutchman They emit as much carbon dioxide as 18 Kenyans.
This is the relevant comparison. That’s why we need to increase our climate ambitions rather than “cut” them. Decent climate policy means we take responsibility for our disproportionate share of causing climate change and the damage it causes. We are committed to reducing our emissions. To compensate poor countries and enable them to adapt to consequences that can no longer be avoided.
This is the guideline that the Netherlands should adopt, not the fact-free and immoral climate paragraph in the Freedom Party’s election manifesto.
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