Climate Change and poor
Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, pulls no punches but rather paints a dismal picture of the changes global warming may bring, changes not often included in discussions on the effects of greenhouse gases.
It predicts that by 2030 as many as 100 million more people could be thrust into poverty because of climate change. Africa and South Asia are expected to be affected the most. The World Bank authors note the poor are more exposed to disasters like floods, droughts and heat waves and often lose what wealth they have when they occur.
Fight to end poverty
The report bases its assessment of increased poverty in part on predictions of crop failures due to reduced rainfall, failures that will lead to increases in food prices. It also predicts more destructive weather and the likelihood of an increase in the proliferation of diseases.
Despite these forebodings, and others, the report insists there are ways of avoiding dire consequences. That is, the authors note, if there is a political will to do so.
“The key finding of the report is that climate change represents a significant obstacle to the sustained eradication of poverty,” the report notes. “But future impacts on poverty are determined by policy choices: rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development can prevent most short-term impacts whereas immediate pro-poor, emissions-reduction policies can drastically limit long-term ones.”
The World Bank Group is a non-profit international organization with a head office in Washington D.C. It consists of five development institutions that together make loans to developing countries and work toward “a World Free of Poverty.”