Lesley Wroughton, Reuters 15 Sep 09;
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world's rich nations must make immediate and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions or the steeply rising cost of climate change will fall disproportionately on poor countries, the World Bank said on Tuesday.
In a major report on the threat of climate change, the Bank's "World Development Report" said developing countries will bear 75 to 80 percent of the costs of damage caused by climate change and rich countries, the biggest CO2 emitters in the past, have a "moral" obligation to pay for them to adapt.
It said tackling climate change in developing countries need not compromise poverty-fighting measures and economic growth, but stressed that funding and technical support from rich countries will be essential.
The report comes amid tough global negotiations ahead of a meeting in Copenhagen in December on a new global climate accord to combat man-made climate change, to succeed the current Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Unlike in the Kyoto talks when frictions were between Europe and the United States, current talks have focused on differences between rich and rapidly developing countries.
"The countries of the world must act now, act together and act differently on climate change," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said.
"Developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change -- a crisis that is not of their making and for which they are the least prepared. For that reason, an equitable deal in Copenhagen is vitally important," he added.
While the report did not take a specific position on Copenhagen, it said a deal will take a "credible commitment" by high-income countries to drastically cut their emissions.
It also said developing nations must do their part and keep down the overall costs of climate change by adopting policies that reduce emissions or their growth rate.
"Unless developing countries also start transforming their energy system as they grow, limiting warming to close to 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels will not be achievable," it said.
It said annual energy-related CO2 emissions in middle-income economies have caught up with those of the rich, and the largest share of current emissions from deforestation and other land-use change comes from tropical countries.
The report said countries in Africa and South Asia could permanently lose as much as 4 to 5 percent of their gross domestic product if the earth's temperature increases 2 degrees Celsius as opposed to minimal losses in rich countries.
IMPACTING POVERTY GOALS
Rosina Bierbaum, one of the report's authors and Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, said climate change could disrupt U.N. goals to halve global poverty and hunger by 2015 because of the impact to agriculture and food prices.
The report estimated that by 2050 the world will need to feed 3 billion more people at a time when countries are dealing with a harsher climate, with more storms, droughts and floods.
Bierbaum told a news conference in Washington the cost of addressing climate change will be high but was still manageable if countries act now. The longer the delays, the harder it will be to alter infrastructures, economies and lifestyles.
The report said mitigation measures in developing countries to curb emissions could cost around $400 billion a year by 2030. Currently, mitigation finance averages around $8 billion a year.
In addition, annual investments that will help developing countries figure out how to live with climate change could cost around $75 billion. This compares to less than $1 billion a year currently available, the Bank said.
The World Bank said the global financial crisis should not be used as an excuse to delay action to address climate change because the future climate crisis is likely to be more damaging to the world economy.
"The economic downturn may delay the business-as-usual growth in emissions by a few years, but it is unlikely to fundamentally change that path over the long term," it said.
(Editing by James Dalgleish)
Rich nations must lead global warming battle: World Bank
Yahoo News 15 Sep 09;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The World Bank on Tuesday called on rich countries to step up the battle against global warming, saying their assistance is essential to help developing countries reduce their carbon footprints.
Developing countries can shift to lower-carbon paths while promoting development and reducing poverty, but this depends on financial and technical assistance from high-income countries, the World Bank said in a report released ahead of the December international conference on climate change in Copenhagen.
"The countries of the world must act now, act together and act differently on climate change," said World Bank president Robert Zoellick.
"Developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change -- a crisis that is not of their making and for which they are the least prepared. For that reason, an equitable deal in Copenhagen is vitally important," he said.
The report, "World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change," says that advanced countries, which produced most of the greenhouse gas emissions of the past, must act quickly to reduce their carbon footprints and boost development of alternative energy sources to help tackle the problem of climate change.
If developed countries act now, a "climate-smart" world is feasible and the costs to achieve it "will be high but still manageable," the Washington-based development lender said.
"A key way to do this is by ramping up funding for mitigation in developing countries, where most future growth in emissions will occur," it said.
Bank urges climate 'action now'
Richard Black, BBC News 15 Sep 09;
Climate change will be a serious barrier to growth in poorer nations and must be curbed, says the World Bank.
The bank's World Development Report (WDR) urges a rapid scaling-up of spending on clean energy research and protection for poorer countries.
Even a warming of 2C (3.6F) - the G8's target - could reduce GDP in poor nations, the report concludes.
The bank urges governments to conclude an "equitable deal" at December's UN climate summit in Copenhagen.
That "equitable deal" should involve industrialised countries paying for the damage that their historical emissions have caused and will cause in poorer parts of the world, it suggests.
"Developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change - a crisis that is not of their making and for which they are the least prepared," said World Bank president Robert Zoellick.
"For that reason, an equitable deal in Copenhagen is vitally important."
Part of that deal, the report says, involves industrialised countries making rapid cuts in their greenhouse gas output, creating "emissions space" to allow for rising fossil fuel use in poorer societies.
Developing problem
The acceptance of "historical responsibility" found resonance among organisations that campaign for the relief of developing world poverty.
"A broad coalition from Bolivian President Evo Morales to the World Bank is united in saying that past emissions matter, and that rich countries have to confront this rather than avoid it," noted Tom Sherman, head of climate change with the charity ActionAid.
The report concludes that policy "cannot be framed as a choice between growth and climate change".
In fact, it says, "climate-smart policies are those that enhance development, reduce vulnerability and finance the transition to low-carbon economic growth".
The bank notes that some developing countries' outlay on coping with weather emergencies is already rising.
Poor countries in Africa and Asia could see their GDP fall by about 5% under a global warming of 2C - the target adopted by the G8 and a number of important developing countries during their summit in Italy in July.
"Grappling with climate shocks that are already hampering development will not be easy," said Rosina Bierbaum, co-director of the WDR and dean of the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment.
"But promising new energy technologies can vastly reduce future greenhouse gas emissions and prevent catastrophic climate change."
Cash costs
The full financing package that the bank believes is likely to be needed annually by 2030 includes:
* $75bn to help poorer nations adapt to, or protect themselves against, climate impacts
* $400bn for mitigation - reducing emissions - in the developing world
* hundreds of billions for energy research and development
And the vast majority, it concludes, must come from nations that have already industrialised through intensive fossil fuel use.
The bank's explicit conclusions - that climate change has to be curbed to aid development, and that richer countries have to pay - will harden the case that developing countries are making for more cash in the lead up to Copenhagen.
It parts company with some observers who argue that climate change should only be addressed once societies have become rich enough to solve it painlessly: "Development will get harder, not easier, with climate change".
