Global Warming and Poverty

Published on Monday, October 24, 2005 by the Independent / UK
Climate Change 'Could Ruin Drive to Eradicate Poverty'
by Steve Connor


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Britain's most senior independent scientist has warned that global warming
threatens to ruin the international initiative to lift Africa out of poverty.

Lord May of Oxford, the president of the Royal Society, said the cost of dealing
with the adverse effects of climate change could soak up all the aid to African
countries.

In an open letter to G8 environment ministers who are to meet in London on 1
November, Lord May warns that the Gleneagles agreement on aid and debt relief
to Africa could amount to nothing.

"As long as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise, there is the very
real prospect that the increase in aid agreed at Gleneagles will be entirely
consumed by the mounting cost of dealing with the added burden of adverse
effects of climate change in Africa," Lord May said.

"In effect, the Gleneagles communiqué gave hope to Africa with one hand, through
a promise of more aid but took that hope away with the other hand through its
failure to address adequately the threat of climate change," he said.

At the Gleneagles summit in July, G8 leaders agreed on a package of measures to
help to lift Africa out of poverty but kept that separate from an action plan
on climate change.

"But the action plan on climate change fell far short of a strategy to stop the
rise in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere," he added.

At the Gleneagles summit, President George Bush, an arch-sceptic of global
warming, did not want climate change to be connected with aid to Africa and
managed to separate it from the joint communiqué.

However, Lord May, a former chief scientific adviser to the Government, warned
that there is mounting scientific evidence to show that global warming is the
biggest single threat to the world today - especially developing countries.

The latest study, published today ,reveals for instance that the rise in
man-made greenhouse gases may already be responsible for an increase in drought
conditions and risk of famine in eastern Africa.

Lord May cites the results of research by James Verdin of the US Geological
Survey who found that rainfall has decreased steadily since 1996 in Ethiopia
and neighbouring countries which coincides with a corresponding increase in
surface-water temperatures in the southern Indian Ocean.

"The researchers point out that this reduction in rainfall is adversely
affecting the growth of crops and increasing the number of people who require
food aid," Lord May said.

"This finding has particular resonance, coming as it does 20 years after a
severe famine in Ethiopia attracted worldwide attention through Live Aid and
other events that pricked the collective conscience of richer developed
countries," he added.

"In short, the scientific evidence now presents a more compelling case than ever
before for tackling the threat from climate change by stopping the rise of
greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere."

Richer countries have a responsibility to do something about climate change by
stabilising the rise in greenhouse gas emissions that they are primarily
responsible for, he said.

"Therefore, if the increase in aid and other measures outlined in the Gleneagles
action plan on Africa are to create the maximum benefit, they must be
accompanied by effective action on climate change by stopping the inexorable
rise in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere," Lord May said.

A major failing in the communiqué was that it did not acknowledge the importance
of securing an agreement on stabilising levels of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere.

Lord May warns G8 environment ministers that without a definition of target
concentrations of greenhouse gases, discussions about national emissions
targets are nothing more than an academic dispute.

© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
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