Climate Change: The Poor's Biggest Disaster

The report was released by Cecilia Ugaz, deputy director of the UNDP Human Development Report Office. It came during a workshop for media practitioners from across the globe under the theme of "understanding solutions to climate change."  

The report states that progress on the Millennium Development Goals is being hampered by the effects of climate change.

Inequality

While home to only 15 percent of the world population, rich countries account for almost half of all carbon dioxide emissions. "In Ethiopia, the average per capita carbon emission is 0.1 tons of  carbon dioxide, compared to 20 tons in Canada."

The report points out that 40 percent of the world population suffer the full challenge of climate change. That puts the number at an estimated 2.6 billion people, with 98 percent of them living in developing nations.

People in developing countries, the report notes, contribute less to global warming but bear the brunt of ecological interdependence. "Cities like London may face flooding but their inhabitants are protected by elaborate flood defense systems. By contrast when global warming changes weather patterns in the Horn of Africa, it means that crops might fail – causing hunger and death," says the report.

Moreover, the report points out that real climate change vulnerabilities are already being felt in rural communities and urban slums across the developing world.

Ugaz noted that developing countries should not make the mistakes of  their developed counterparts. "Less developed nations should stop carbon emissions by now as halving emissions by 2020 could avoid dangerous climate change," she reiterated.

Hope

But the situation is not all-gloomy. The report stresses that it is possible to keep the global temperature increase within the 2°C threshold, which is the limit suggested by most scientists around the world. High leadership and international cooperation, however, will be needed to achieve this bold aim.

But it will take a long time for the results of these initiatives to be felt. "Even stringent mitigation measures will not materially affect average temperature changes until the middle of this-century," notes the report.

Although many governments are setting up bold targets for cutting green house gas emissions, practical outcomes are less than impressive. "The gap between scientific evidence and political evidence remains large," the reports states.  

The report adds that low development is limiting the capacity of poor households to protect themselves from climate risks. Farmers in drought-prone areas often choose to plan drought-resistant crops rather than high-income ones to stay on the safe side. "This results in malnutrition, more so among children," reads the report.

In addition to that, human health is compromised by an increase in outbreaks of diseases related to climate change, such as malaria. 

Recommendations

It also focuses on enabling renewable energy more. The target should be to generate 20 percent of the world's energy by 2020 from renewable sources.

Strengthening the framework for international cooperation was also high on the agenda. Carbon financing should extend beyond the industrial sector and include land-use programs such as forest conservation and grassland restorations. 

Additionally, the report recommends putting climate change adaptation at the center of international partnerships for poverty eradication. It also stresses the need for a new framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

Wanzala Bahati Justus is a freelance journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. Your emails will be forwarded to him by contacting the editor at ScienceTech@islam-online.net.