Integrating development and climate policies

CLIMATE POLICY 8 (2008) 99–102 Social and economic development is strongly related to climate change. It is now well established that climate change and its impacts can have a very negative influence on people and their economies, for example on agriculture or in areas vulnerable to droughts and floods. The livelihoods of the poor, young and elderly will be most seriously undermined by extreme events (e.g. droughts, floods, epidemics) as well as more subtle changes (e.g. different disease vectors, heat stress, changes in growing season). The global effort to fight poverty, confirmed again with the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, will be seriously hampered if mitigation and adaptation to climate change are not addressed. Paradoxically, social and economic development is the very driver of climate change. The way in which human societies have transformed the land over the past centuries to produce food, timber and fuel, and the use of coal, oil and natural gas to fuel our economies are directly responsible for the strong increase in GHG concentrations in the atmosphere. The trends in exploitation of natural resources and the use of fossil fuel are not changing. Projections into the future show a further decline in the forests and natural vegetation and a further increase in greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change. The question is how to reconcile the development aspirations of countries with the challenges posed by human-induced climate change. The complex relationship between development and climate change necessitates a two-way approach, embracing: