By Khalid Malik
Sunday, April 22 marks Earth Day. The theme of this year's Earth
Day is climate change, one of the most pressing and complex
challenges facing the world.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report
just released paints a grim picture of the advance of climate
change, and its potential harm to the lives of millions.
The report predicts that millions more people will be threatened
by serious flooding every year by the end of this century,
especially in densely populated, low-lying areas, where because of
poverty they are unable to adapt to the changes. These areas
already face other challenges such as tropical storms and sinking
coastlines.
The complexity of dealing with climate change is seen by the
divergence of impacts climate change is expected to have in
different parts of the world.
While climate change brings serious risks to future development,
including China, it is also expected to bring positive consequences
to some regions in the north where melting ice could open up areas
for human activity.
But for most people in the developing world, climate change will
likely mean increased risk of drought, reduced water supplies, and
even loss of life.
The changes expected from climate change are serious and require
concerted international action to both lessen the impact and to
adapt. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the Kyoto
Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism is an important example of
how the world's markets can be brought to bear on climate
change.
Large improvements in energy efficiency and expanded use of
renewable energy are needed in both developed and developing
countries if future emissions and climate change impacts are to be
mitigated.
We will also have to design new ways to deal with carbon capture
through investments in forest conservation and forestation measures
which both reduce the impact of climate change and conserve
biodiversity.
While mitigation measures remain central, the UN also places top
priority on actions to adapt to the impact of climate change in
vulnerable regions of the world.
Issues of food and water supplies and disaster prevention are
critical in eliminating extreme poverty, as noted in the IPCC
report.
As sea levels rise, small islands are particularly vulnerable,
with more flooding, storm surges, erosion and other coastal
hazards.
Indeed, while the world's poorest countries bear little
responsibility for the build-up of carbon and other global warming
gases in the earth's atmosphere, they will bear the brunt of the
social and economic consequences.
The UN believes that there is a significant risk that climate
change could roll back human development in environmentally
vulnerable countries, slowing down, if not reversing, the progress
made by many developing countries.
As we approach the halfway mark to the 2015 target for the UN
Millennium Development Goals, this is yet another powerful
motivation for us to redouble our efforts for sustainable
development.
In China, the government issued its first-ever National Climate
Change Impact Assessment Report earlier this year, showing the
serious consequences climate change poses for food, water supplies
and land.
With 2006 the warmest year in China in the last 50 years, China
faced historic low levels of water in the Yangtze River. Trends of
glacial melting have also increased in recent times causing concern
for local and national development.
China has achieved many hard-won development gains over the past
decades. As the report shows, while climate change may well bring
positive implications for some regions of the country, overall
climate change poses serious risks for sustaining development in
the decades to come. And it is the poor that will be hardest hit as
they lack the ability to adapt to this uncertain future.
The impact of temperature change will be most marked on
populations in the western part of the country with the most
limited adaptive capacity, including communities living in areas
with rainfed agriculture, drought-prone or flood-prone
conditions.
With the impacts of climate change already felt, adaptation
through enhanced resilience is a top priority, though in most cases
adaptation has yet to be given the prominence it merits in local
debates on development and poverty reduction.
Operationally, how to reach the poorest and most vulnerable
communities remains a major challenge.
The UN believes that regions with sophisticated environmental
management capacity can better adapt themselves to climate change.
Therefore, it is critical to develop and carry out adaptation
strategies and associated actions on the provincial level.
In the context of the upcoming launch of a new National Climate
Change Strategy for China later this month, the family of UN
agencies stands ready to provide support to ensure that such
policies can be effectively translated into on-the-ground action
for results.
Climate change is a matter of common concern throughout the UN
system, including members of the UN system in China. Through the UN
Theme Group on Energy and Environment, a UN inter-agency
coordination mechanism, the UN system in China will increase our
joint analysis and coordinate our actions to help China achieve its
goals.
The scale of possible future impact creates livelihood risks and
vulnerabilities. The nature of these risks will vary both between
and within provinces.
If measures are to have real effect in coming years, there is an
urgent need to develop local policies, partnerships and
implementation capacities to take action.
Based on the principles in the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change and strong cooperation with the National Climate
Change Coordination Office and partners, UN agencies in China are
working closely with Chinese institutions to help provide
assistance to government, business and civil society to integrate
climate change adaptation policies into local development
policies.
At the global level, the UN Development Program's Human
Development Report will focus on how to "climate-proof" human
development and reduce poverty.
The report will explore the links between climate change and
human development. These links raise important questions about
social justice and loss of equity between generations.
This year's report will explore ways in which climate change
interacts with wider factors to increase vulnerability, such as
increased poverty, widened regional inequalities, income and gender
inequalities, and aggravated ecological pressures.
The report will highlight the implications for inequality. At a
global level, some of these implications are self-evident.
Rich countries are far better placed to provide the
infrastructure needed to reduce risk and vulnerability than poor
countries. In developing countries, vulnerable populations face the
double jeopardy of being at greater risk and having limited
capacity to reduce risk through private markets.
The upcoming UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Conference in December in Indonesia presents a significant
opportunity for all countries and all UN agencies to come together
to review this year's IPCC findings and chart the course for more
aggressive and concerted actions to mitigate and adapt to climate
change for the benefit of future generations.
The author is the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident
Representative in China.
(China Daily April 20, 2007)
