Poorest forced to weather the storm

FOLLOWING the controversy that surrounded the recent announcement by Environment Minister Phil Hogan of a review of climate policy, the debate about the need for climate change legislation has once again hit the headlines.

By focusing on policy development initially and delaying legislative action, the minister is taking time that the world and its poorest people do not have.

Seven billion of us share this planet and in the coming decades this could rise to nine billion. The world’s resources, especially water, are experiencing unprecedented demand and the global food system is buckling under intense pressure from climate change and other factors such as competition for land, rising energy prices and ecological degradation.