Climate change is having devastating impacts on communities’ lives, livelihoods and food security across South Asia. Its consequences are so severe that it is increasingly contributing to migration, and this incidence is likely to escalate much more in the years to come as climate change impacts become more serious.

This paper provides an overview of the recent 2015-16 El Niño climate-related events and the subsequent lack of adequate response to the global drought. It proposes a fair shares approach to climate justice, thereby providing guidance for appropriate levels of humanitarian aid and boosting support for the most vulnerable.

Adding “net” to a goal of “zero emissions” may prove to be a trap that delays real climate action, and which could drive devastating land grabs and hunger through the large-scale use of land, biofuels and biomass to absorb rising carbon dioxide emissions.