POOREST HIT HARDEST BY CLIMATE CHANGE, SCIENTISTS CONFIRM
Climate change will hit the poorest and most vulnerable populations hardest, the world’s top climate scientists confirmed in their most recent report.
The report, entitled "Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability," was released on 6 April in Brussels by the government negotiators and climate scientists that make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), following several days of negotiations and reviews.
The second in a series of four such assessment papers to be released this year, the IPCC report shows that climate change is already having profound effects on all continents (see BRIDGES Weekly, 7 February 2007, http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/07-02-07/story5.htm). Over the next several decades, Africa will witness intensified droughts and Asia will be threatened by massive flooding. North America will experience more severe storms, floods, and extreme weather; and Europe will see its Alpine glaciers disappear, adds the study.
Crucially, it is the most vulnerable who will the face greatest difficulties adapting to the consequences of climate change. "The poorest of the poor in the world — and this includes poor people in prosperous societies — are going to be the worst hit," said Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC.
Many developing countries are likely to be affected by longer and more intense droughts, and crop yields in some countries could drop by 50 percent in 2020. More than one billion people may face shortages of fresh water by 2050, especially those living in Asia.
The summary of the IPCC report will be presented to the June summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialised countries in Heiligendamm, Germany. The IPCC’s third report, set to be released in May in Bangkok, will suggest ways to combat climate change, through such measures as carbon cap and trade systems, and the rapid development of renewable energy on a global scale.
Parties to the Kyoto Protocol will meet this December to discuss emissions reduction commitments beyond 2012.
The UN has suggested holding a high-level meeting on the issue. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is set to discuss climate change at a meeting on 17 April.
For more in-depth coverage of the IPCC report, please see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 13 April 2007.
ICTSD reporting.