Action on Climate Change to Shape Future of Poor Nations

Hohoe (V/R), July 26, GNA-The Future Climate for Development, an Environmental think-tank group, has called on governments and Nongovernmental Oraganisations (NGOs) to build climate change into their economic paradigms to help low-income countries to manage its impacts and seize new opportunities as the world shifts to a low-carbon economy.

It noted that climate change would reverse years of work reducing poverty in the developing world without strong and urgent action, according to the report.

The report, produced by independent sustainability experts, Forum for the Future (FF) with support from the British Department of International Development (DFID) explores how climate change would transform low-income countries over the next 20 years.

Mr Stephen O'Brien, United Kingdom (UK) International Development Minister, said; "Without urgent action, climate change threatens to undo years of work tackling poverty in the developing world.

"That is why the UK was working assiduously across the globe to help the world's poorest people prepare for the potentially devastating effects of climate change and shift to clean technologies that are so vital to a stable and successful future for us all," he said.

Mr Peter Madden, Chief Executive of FF, said the report would act as an important tool to assist poor countries to plan for an uncertain future and underlines "our need to build climate change into everything we do".

He said climate change and development should be seen as complementary and not competing issues.

Mr Madden said by placing climate change at the forefront of development thinking "we would not only help the world's poorest to avoid serious risks but we could also help them to seize new opportunities to create better lives for themselves".

He said development aid should be much more climate change resilient.

The Future Climate for Development advocated that low-income countries looks for win-win opportunities, which address climate change and tackle development goals like reducing poverty and improving health and education.

For example, it called for investment in efficient renewable energy for energy security, promote low-carbon transport for less congestion and pollution and low-input agriculture to boost food security.

It argues that aid should not be blind to climate change, ignoring measures to help countries adapt to its impacts and promote high-carbon development.

Climate change would transform countries and reshape the global economic and political landscape, it says, and this must be factored into development decisions to ensure they continue to yield benefits in the long-term.

The report was designed to be a practical tool to assist governments, Civil Society Organisations, NGOs, businesses and policy-makers in developed and developing countries "future proof" their strategies and plan for a range of possible outcomes.

It examines key issues, which would affect low-income countries over the next 20 years and explore how these may play out in four plausible scenarios for the world of 2030.

The scenarios highlights the need to be prepared for radical changes and possible challenges, for instance, shortages of food and natural resources and climate change impacts could lead many nations to question the Western model of democracy.

In addition, once unthinkable population control measures are introduced as a policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with conflict over water and scarce resources escalating and come to dominate international relations.

It notes that development agencies would need to reappraise their strategies, for example, to promote subsistence farming and build more climate resilience than intensive agriculture, disaster response becoming part of long-term development planning and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) no longer being used as primary measure of success in all countries.

The scenarios were the result of a year-long project that studied how low-income nations might develop over the next 20 years and was undertaken by over 100 experts from around the world including development professionals, government officials and independent thinkers.

It dwelt on reversal of fortunes, age of opportunity, coping alone and the greater good.