The Inequality of Climate Change

     With all the uncertainties surrounding how climate change will impact the future, one thing is crystal clear - It will hit the world's poorest the hardest. In The World Bank's latest report, it stated that "No nation will be immune to the impacts of climate change. However, the distribution of impacts is likely to be inherently unequal and titled against many of the world's poorest regions, which have the least economic, institutional, scientific and technical capacity to cope and adapt." Likewise, the IPCC, along with the UN, warn that "It is the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit."
     There are two main reasons why climate change will not effect us all equally. First is the geography. Poorer, lower-latitude countries will most likely face desertification and more intense-storms in the future to come. Also, because in many poorer regions, the vulnerable tend to cluster in areas where climate change might have a disproportional impact, like zones of flooding and dry rural areas that are more susceptible to drought and famine. The second and more significant reason is that the poorer the country, the harder it will most likely be for it to respond to a changing climate and its impacts. It goes without saying that in the wake of major natural disasters money matters. It not only quickens the recovery process, but it also aids in reducing the damages caused in the first place.
     It is for this reason that developing countries hold rich countries like the United States responsible for climate change, and want them to pay for its effects. For instance, carbon emissions are correlated with income. Such nations like Bangladesh, Palau and the Philippines have all claimed that "Each destructive typhoon season costs us 2% or our G.D.P., and the reconstruction costs a further 2%, which means we loose nearly 5% of our economy every year to storms. We have received no climate finance to adapt or to prepare ourselves for typhoons and other extreme weather we are now experiencing. We have not seen any money from the rich countries to help us adapt."
     The bottom line is, if we fail to confront climate change, then we will fail to end poverty. Yong Kim, the president of The World Bank says, "Poverty reduction and climate change are linked. We have powerful new evidence that even if climate change falls short of the much-discussed 4°C warmer world, we could witness the rolling back of decades of development gains and force ten of millions of more lives into poverty/"


New York Times-Climate Change Inequality


The World Bank-Climate Change