International Agency Coalition warn that climate change may Intensify World Poverty

An international coalition of environment and development agencies has launched a joint statement to address its concern over the climate changes that have been recorded due to global warming.

Yesterday, the coalition issued its report “Up in Smoke? Threats from, and responses to, the impact of global warming on human development” in London. The report, produced by the International Institute for Environment and Development and the New Economics Foundation (Nef), warns that ignorance to the current situation could put the poor communities and vulnerable ecosystems into a more unfavourable condition.

The 17-member coalition includes ActionAid, Christian Aid, Oxfam GB, Tearfund, WaterAid, World Vision, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Worldwide Fund for Nature and other international agencies.

In the foreword to the report, Dr R. K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested that there is a relationship between the climate change and the widespread prevalence of poverty in the world. The report aims to bring out the major issue: Global warming threatens to make the international targets on halving global poverty by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), unattainable.

“As the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC clearly indicates, ‘The impacts of climate change will fall disproportionately upon developing countries and the poor... within all countries,’” he wrote.

Over the past months in 2004, severe natural disasters have been unusually hitting many countries, such as hurricanes Jeanne and Ivan that swept across the Caribbean, and the disastrous flooding in Bangladesh. This has been seen by many as the result of global warming. The natural hazards have brought great disturbances to the economic and social environment in the affected countries.

The coalition pledged to halt dangerous climate change and to help bring about a global solution that is fair and rooted in human equality. It is also calling on the international community to take urgent action to introduce a global risk assessment of the likely costs of adaptating to the climate changes in poor countries.

In order to avert the threat of global warming, cutting the emissions of greenhouse gases is vital. Industrialised countries must cut their greenhouse gas emissions to 60-80% below their 1990 levels “to stop climate change running out of control”, the report said.

The report also calls for small-scale renewable energy projects, promoted by governments and community groups, which can help to both tackle poverty and reduce climate change.

Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel peace prize and former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town endorsed the report, said, “I urge governments, development and environmental organisations to work together to find sustainable solutions to avert a catastrophe that will exacerbate human suffering to a magnitude that perhaps the world has not yet seen.”

Recently a global campaign entitled the Micah Challenge was launched at the United Nations by the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, to mobilise millions of Christians in 100 countries to press their governments to halve poverty by 2015. Together with the argument projected by the Up in Smoke? report, the efforts put in making poverty history will seek to be more efficient.

The report’s author, Andrew Simms of Nef, said, “Thousands of people are aiming to make poverty history, but global warming has been critically overlooked... To rescue the situation we need a global framework to stop climate change that is based on equality, and we have to ensure that plans for human development are made both climate-proof and climate-friendly.”

For the UK, the report has extra significance. In 2005, the country will host the presidency of the G8 as well as the European Union (EU). The Prime Minister Tony Blair has signalled that he will use the leadership to bring climate change and Africa, where most of the poorest countries are found, to the top of the international political agenda.

Up in Smoke will be the second campaign launched this month in the UK for climate change after Operation Noah spearheaded by the Christian Ecology Link (CEL) on behalf of the Environmental Issues Network of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI).