Yahoo News 29 Sep 09;
THE HAGUE (AFP) – Developing countries will need up to 100 billion dollars (80 billion euros) a year for 40 years to combat the effects of global warming, said a World Bank report released in The Hague on Tuesday.
Assuming the planet is two degrees Celsius warmer by 2050, "the study puts the cost of adapting ... at 75 billion to 100 billion dollars a year" from 2010, according to an investigation commissioned by Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
"What we try to show with this report is the urgency of ensuring that there are sufficient funds for adaptation" for poor countries, Dutch Development Minister Bert Koenders said on receiving the report.
"It is for many countries a question of life and death," he added. "There will be no climate deal in Copenhagen if there is no financing for adaptation" -- referring to the UN climate summit to be held there in December.
East Asia, South Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa are those most affected by global warming, the report said.
The European Union, Japan and the United States "realise" that money had to be found, Koenders said, adding however that funding "does not necessarily have to come from national budgets".
"The big political debate is now about the figures, that is why it is very important to have objective figures from this report."
Koenders said developing countries would require additional aid on top of traditional development assistance to deal with climate change.
World Bank economist Sergio Margulis, who headed the study, said the costs of global warming will rise.
"Development is the most powerful form of adaptation," the report said.
"It makes economies less reliant on climate-sensitive sectors, such as agriculture. It boosts the capacity of households to adapt by increasing levels of incomes, health and education.
"It enhances the ability of governments to assist by improving the institutional infrastructure. And it dramatically reduces the number of people killed by floods and affected by floods and droughts."
Development also means breeding drought- and flood-tolerant crops, climate-proofing infrastructure, the report said.
Margulis said developing countries, like their rich counterparts, also had a duty to reduce CO2 emissions "to avoid the unmanageable consequences of higher temperatures".
If nothing is done, the report argued, global warming would kill half the species on the planet, flood 30 percent of coastal wetlands, and cause a steep rise in malnutrition and disease.
Climate change to cost poor states $100 billion a year
Thin Lei Win, Reuters 20 Sep 09;
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Developing countries will need to spend as much as $100 billion annually for the next 40 years to adapt to more extreme and severe weather changes, according to a World Bank study issued on Wednesday.
The report said poorer countries would need to invest in large-scale infrastructure projects to cope with floods, drought, heatwaves and more frequent and intense rainfall if the Earth's temperature rose by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050.
"Faced with the prospect of huge additional infrastructure costs, as well as drought, disease and dramatic reductions in agricultural productivity, developing countries need to be prepared for the potential consequences of unchecked climate change," said Katherine Sierra, World Bank vice president for sustainable development.
Previous estimates of adaptation costs by other groups ranged from $9 billion to $104 billion, but the World Bank said the latest projection of costs are the most in-depth analysis to date of the impact of climate change.
The report gave a costs range of $75 billion to $100 billion based on two different scenarios, the first a drier world that would require less investment than wetter conditions, which would need measures such as building sea walls or deeper drainage canals.
HARDEST HIT
East Asia and the Pacific, home to some of the world's fastest-growing economies, would be the hardest hit financially, accounting for at least a quarter of total costs, mostly due to increased urbanization, especially in coastal areas, said Warren Evans, director of the Bank's environment department.
According to the study, the cost of adapting to a warmer world is on the same scale as the amount of aid developing countries currently receive. Aid agencies say it is essential that aid money is not cut to fund climate change initiatives.
"Any financing that comes in must be additional money," Oxfam's senior climate policy advisor, Antonio Hill, told Reuters. "If it's not, then it's just robbing Peter to pay Paul."
Conservation group WWF voiced concern that the World Bank's estimate was based on the assumption that the world would work together to restrict the temperature rise to two degrees.
"The commitments from developed countries in the present negotiations don't come anywhere near this level of ambition," WWF said in a statement, referring to global climate change talks taking place in Bangkok.
"This underlines the need for much stronger commitments on the table from developed countries, both in terms of emissions reductions and in terms of financing for climate action in developing countries." (Editing by Martin Petty and Alex Richardson)
