/ 27 November 2007

Rich and poor gird for climate change

People around the world are preparing for floods, droughts and other natural disasters in ways largely dictated by wealth and poverty as evidence of climate change mounts, a United Nations report said on Tuesday.

Even if countries immediately took steps to cut greenhouse gases, global temperatures would continue to rise until 2050 due to accumulated carbon emissions, the UN Development Programme said in its report. As a result climate disasters will be more frequent.

”All countries will have to adapt to climate change,” said the report scheduled to be released in Brasilia on Tuesday.

Like many low-lying areas in The Netherlands, the town of Maasbommel is vulnerable to flooding from rising river and sea levels. Despite a sophisticated system of dikes, residents have built 38 homes able to float on water due to their hollow foundations propped up by steel stilts.

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, one of the world’s most vulnerable areas to climate change, people also are trying to cope with prospects of increased flooding from storms in the South China Sea during typhoon season.

They are being given life jackets and taught how to swim as part of a programme sponsored by aid groups, the UNDP said.

The contrast between their bamboo stilts and earth dikes with the flood defence systems in Maasbommel illustrates how climate change ”reinforces wider global inequalities,” Kevin Watkins, the report’s lead author, told Reuters.

‘Morally wrong’

While people in rich countries can rely on public investment, those in poor countries must largely help themselves, the report said.

”Leaving the world’s poor to sink or swim with their own meagre resources in the face of the threat posed by climate change is morally wrong,” Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu of South Africa wrote in the report.

Britain spends $1,2-billion annually on flood defence and is mulling an $8-billion investment for the Thames Barrier. California, meanwhile, is investing in water recycling and efficiency.

The US state expects a reduction of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, an important water source, by 37% in between 2035 and 2064, and 79% in 2070 to 2090, the report said.

While The Netherlands has 14 weather stations per 10 000 square km to monitor climate and Britain has seven, African countries have less than one on average.

Still, some pilot projects in developing countries show that low-cost measures can make a difference. A simple monitoring scheme that informs farmers of rain, for example, increased productivity in Mali, the report said.

The UNDP urged rich countries to honour their pledges for climate change aid to developing countries. Otherwise they could face higher costs down the road.

”In the long run, the problems of the poor will arrive at the doorstep of the wealthy, as the climate crisis gives way to despair, anger and collective security threats,” Tutu wrote. – Reuters