Coping with the impacts
The world is increasingly warming and concerted efforts are required in coming decades to avoid global temperature rise above 2°C and the impacts of catastrophic climate change. Without urgent and rapid efforts to reduce global carbon emissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts possible temperature rises of 4°C or more this century.
Climate change has been exacerbated by the unsustainable lifestyle of the wealthy developing world, which therefore must take responsibility and leadership in both mitigating carbon emissions and resourcing adaptation strategies.
The ongoing negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to achieve a post-2012 global climate change agreement provides an opportunity to set in place the global response to climate change for the decades ahead and to put in place fair, long-term policies for sustainable development.
Climate change hitting developing countries hard
Poor people often rely on natural resources to build their livelihoods. Degradation of natural resources (forests, freshwater, soil, seas) leaves both people and the environment more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The natural environment and the services it provides are critical for supporting the livelihoods of the world's poor – between 60% and 90% of employment in African and Asian countries comes from agriculture, fisheries and forestry; in sub-Saharan Africa agriculture accounts for up to 50% of GDP. Natural resources account directly for 26% of the wealth of a low-income country – disproportionately higher than the 2% they provide to high income countries.
The world’s poorest and most vulnerable societies are being increasingly hit hardest by climate change because:
- they are located within the world most vulnerable and climatically variable zones;
- most of the world’s 2.7 billion poor depend on natural resources for survival and economic development;
- the poor lack the resources and capacity to respond quickly to climate change;
- the environment and world's natural resources (forests, seas, soil, biodiversity, etc) are already substantially degraded.
Therefore, good management of natural resources in developing countries will reduce the vulnerability of the poorest and worst affected peoples, societies and the ecosystems, while giving resilience in the face of climate change. The UNFCCC must seriously consider the multiple benefits pro-poor, pro-environment strategies for adaptation when establishing post-2012 adaptation policies.