Climate Change responsible for 300,000 deaths a year

30 May 2009

1

Climate change accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year and an annual economic loss of $125 billion.

According to a think tank led by former United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan, by 2030 the annual death toll is expected to reach nearly half a million with economic losses swelling to $300 billion.
 
In its first ever report exclusively focused on the global human impact of climate change, the Global Humanitarian Forum founded by Kofi Annan, said that another 600 million people would be affected adversely by climate change.

The report, issued immediately prior to official preparatory talks in Bonn for a new UN international climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012, says that to avert worst possible outcomes, climate change adaptation efforts need to be scaled up by a factor of 100 in developing countries, which account for 99 per cent of casualties due to climate change.

The report says that the 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year, were the equivalent of an Indian Ocean Tsunami every single year.

The report also indicates that climate change today seriously impacts on the lives of 325 million people, which is expected to nearly double to 600 million in 20 years, making it the biggest emerging humanitarian challenge in the world, impacting on the lives of 10 per cent of the world's population.

Economic losses due to climate change already today amount to over $125 billion per year. This is more than the individual GDP of 73 per cent of the world's countries, and is greater than the total amount of aid that currently flows from industrialised countries to developing nations each year.

The report says that by 2030, the economic losses due to climate change will have almost trebled to $340 billion annually.

The Global Humanitarian Forum commissioned Dalberg Global Development Advisers to develop the report in December 2008 by collating all relevant information and current statistics relating to the human impact of climate change. Within the limitations of existing research, the report presents the most plausible estimate of the impact of climate change on human society today.

Kofi Annan said, ''Climate change is a silent human crisis. Yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time. Already today, it causes suffering to hundreds of millions of people most of whom are not even aware that they are victims of climate change. We need an international agreement to contain climate change and reduce its widespread suffering.

''Despite its dangerous impact, climate change is a neglected area of research since much of the debate has focused on the long term physical effects. The point of this report is to focus on today and on the human face climate change.

''Just six months before the Copenhagen summit, the world finds itself at a crossroads. We can no longer afford to ignore the human impact of climate change. Put simply, the report is a clarion call for negotiators at Copenhagen to come to the most ambitious international agreement ever negotiated, or continue to accept mass starvation, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale.''

According to the report, a majority of the world's population does not have the capacity to cope with the impact of climate change without suffering a potentially irreversible loss of wellbeing and risk of loss of life.

The populations most gravely at risk are over half a billion people in some of the poorest areas that are also highly prone to climate change – in particular, the semi-arid dry land belt countries from the Sahara to the Middle East and Central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia, and small island developing states.

Annan was joined at the launch by report review panelist Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam GB and Global Humanitarian Forum Board Member, who said, ''Climate change is a human crisis which threatens to overwhelm the humanitarian system and turn back the clock on development.''

''It is also a gross injustice - poor people in developing countries bear over 90 per cent of the burden - through death, disease, destitution and financial loss - yet are least responsible for creating the problem. Despite this, funding from rich countries to help the poor and vulnerable adapt to climate change is not even 1 percent of what is needed. This glaring injustice must be addressed at Copenhagen in December," she added.

Business History Videos

History of hovercraft Part 3...

Today I shall talk a bit more about the military plans for ...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of hovercraft Part 2...

In this episode of our history of hovercraft, we shall exam...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of Hovercraft Part 1...

If you’ve been a James Bond movie fan, you may recall seein...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of Trams in India | ...

The video I am presenting to you is based on a script writt...

By Aniket Gupta | Presenter: Sheetal Gaikwad

view more