The role we all play in the climate crisis that's destroying the planet

Unusually heavy rainfall in December 2021 led to the worst floods (left) in recent years in Malaysia; but in January 2020, Sungai Muda in Kedah/Penang dried up and drought hit the north of the peninsula. With the planet getting warmer, we can expect more such weather extremes from now on. — RAJA FAISAL HISHAN/Filepic/The Star

My primary stop-and-think moment at COP26, which I participated in virtually, was listening to Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, whose nine-year-old daughter, Ella, died in 2013 in London because of air pollution-related asthma. Kissi-Debrah, formerly a teacher, is now a frontline advocate to end fossil fuel subsidies – because both climate change and the air pollution that took her daughter’s life are driven by burning fossil fuel. (COP26 was the 26th United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change, held from Oct 31 to Nov 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.)

Air pollution poses one of the biggest threats to human health, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). In Delhi, India, one of the most polluted cities in the world, air pollution killed more Indians in 2019 than any other risk factor. A WHO report published in September found that exposure to polluted air causes seven million premature deaths each year.