Climate change challenge to rich nations

IN the face of economic crisis, we have seen what is achievable when countries unite in a common cause. But with the world at the brink of ecological disaster and millions of poor people already living on the frontline of climate change, it is essential that this ambition be heightened as world leaders meet at the UN climate negotiations in Poland.

The hope following last year’s UN climate negotiations at Bali has faded, with progress painfully slow. This is to the detriment of poor people who are now at risk of having any progress in pulling them from poverty reversed by climate change.

Around the world, international aid agencies like Oxfam have seen the effects of climate change on the world’s poor. In Uganda, changing weather patterns mean farmers gamble when to sow seeds to feed their children and make some money, or see them wash away in floods or dry up in drought.