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WITHOUT
immediate action, climate change could reverse the gains
made by governments in reducing poverty, nutrition,
health and education, according to a report released by
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The
report, “Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a
Divided World,” pointed out that meteorological clocks
such as droughts, floods and storms which intensity and
frequency are only increasing contribute greatly to
poverty and inequality.
“For
millions of people, these are events that offer a
one-way ticket to poverty and long-run cycles of
disadvantage,” the report read.
The
report, the UN said, comes at a key moment in
negotiations to forge a multilateral agreement for the
period after 2012—the expiry date for the current
commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
It calls
for a “twin-track” approach that combines stringent
mitigation to limit 21st-century warming to less than
2°C (3.6°F), with strengthened international cooperation
on adaptation.
On
mitigation, the report urged developed countries to
slash greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 80 percent of
1990 levels by 2050. The report also pushed for the
promotion of carbon taxation, more stringent
cap-and-trade programs, and energy regulation.
If rich
and poor countries are able to cut emissions overall by
50 percent by 2050, “this gives us a 50-50 chance of
avoiding dangerous climate change, so this is an
absolute minimum required reduction in emissions,” said
UNDP’s Claes Johansson.
For rich
nations to help poor ones achieve this goal, the report
proposed a Climate-Change Mitigation Facility at a cost
of $25 billion to $50 billion per year to finance the
development of low-carbon energy systems in developing
nations.
The
report called on developed nations to make global
warming a main priority in their international
partnerships to reduce poverty.
The UNDP
noted that only $26 million has been spent
multilaterally for adaptation measures, which the report
said is the equivalent of one week’s worth of spending
on flood defenses in the United Kingdom. |
