Poverty rampant as climate change problems increase

THE world has failed to limit poverty and has instead increased the problems caused by climate change, a major European Union conference heard yesterday.

The stark statement was issued by the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, at the EU Development Days conference in Stockholm.

He said bailouts had been provided to organisations which had caused climate change problems, instead of the money being spent on those who have scant access to water and energy.

He said 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity, while a possible one metre rise in sea levels could result in some countries fighting to preserve their existence.

Citing the impact of sea level changes to countries such as Bangladesh, he said: “It means a struggle for survival – it is a question of survival for these societies.”

Estimates indicate that by 2020 up to 200 million people in Africa alone will live in conditions of serious water shortage affecting agricultural output, as countries will not have the means to produce food. This, and other effects of climate change, would cause instability across the world, with food scarcity and malnutrition.

Dr Pachauri, a Nobel peace laureate, also said: “In one particular aspect we have been totally deficient – access to energy.”

However, he said European countries had pointed the way.

Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, was to speak during yesterday’s opening session, but was unable to attend due to events in his home country.

Financier and philanthropist George Soros told the conference that richer nations could pass their Special Drawing Rights – an element of a country’s official reserves, typically central bank holdings of gold – that they cannot use as they would have to pay interest on them, to poorer countries via the International Monetary Fund to help alleviate poverty.

“The uses to which it could be put could be specified and monitored, for example, they could be used for the preservation of rain forests,” he said.

IMF managing director Dominque Strauss-Kahn said there was still work to do in giving developing countries a voice in the decision-making process regarding tackling poverty and stimulating economies.