‘Global warming poised to pass 1C threshold’

The first from the World Bank finds rising global temperatures will force 100 million more people into extreme poverty by 2030, and those in the poorest regions-sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia-will be hardest hit.

Ministers from about 70 countries have failed to bridge their gaps on a few major issues ahead of the upcoming United Nations climate change conference in Paris.

To date, a few poor countries have already experienced crop failures, higher food prices, natural disasters and spread of waterborne diseases due to climate change.

More than 100 million people could be pushed back into poverty within 15 years due to rising temperatures and extreme weather, the World Bank has warned.

Nevertheless, this report and many others over the years have pointed out that unless the climate change and its effects on poverty are managed properly it will be close to impossible to eradicate either of these issues.

The strongest driver would be a 5 percent loss of crop yields globally by 2030, which increase to 30 percent by 2080, according to the report.

But the global body said this week that the emission-cutting pledges submitted by countries so far set the stage for warming of closer to 3 C or more, amid a slew of new warnings of the dangers facing our planet.

“However, the World Bank is coming late to the game with its talk of improving social protection to fight the effects of climate change”, Singh said. The World Bank predicts that environmental taxes to reduce emissions would potentially increase the cost of fuel and food, which may greatly affect poor people.

Asked for a response, Harjeet Singh, Climate Policy Manager at ActionAid, told IPS the World Bank’s analysis of poor people’s vulnerability to climate impacts is not new, but it rightly highlights that poverty can not be addressed without tackling climate change.

At the same time, the report says an all-out push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is needed to remove the long-term threat that climate change poses for poverty reduction and such mitigation efforts should be created to ensure that they do not burden the poor. Another posits that the savings from the elimination of fossil fuels could be reinvested into developing countries.

According to the report, efforts to shield the poor, such as better access to health care, deployment of more heat tolerant crops, and upgrading of defenses in coastal areas can prevent a few of the more severe impacts.

In our multilateral approach we must continue to reach out to business leaders to help make the case that fighting climate change would be good not only for the environment but also for the global economy.