LDCs need improved financing for climate change adaptation

The world´s 49 poorest countries need more and better-designed financing—rising from an estimated US$4 billion to US$17 billion per annum by 2030—to cope with the difficulties posed by climate change, says the Least Developed Countries Report 2010.

The report, published every year by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), says it has been estimated that “for every 1°C rise in average global temperatures, annual average growth in poor countries could drop by 2–3 percentage points, with no change in the growth performance of rich countries”. It contends that, because of their lack of social and physical infrastructure, inadequate institutions, and narrow economic bases, the least-developed countries (LDCs) may be exposed not just to potentially catastrophic large-scale disasters, but also to a more permanent state of economic stress as a result of higher average temperatures, reduced availability of water sources, more frequent flooding, and intensified windstorms.

The report urges that climate change adaptation and mitigation should be one of the five central pillars of a new international architecture to support the LDCs. It cautions that, while the LDCs have historically contributed little to the greenhouse gas emissions that are now changing the global climate—and while they currently contribute only 1 percent of such emissions—they face much greater economic damage from climate change effects than do long-industrialized countries.

In particular, the LDCs lack the resources to respond to the more frequent natural disasters such as droughts, floods, and severe storms that are predicted from climate shifts, and which already are striking more often, the study says. It says a link between climate change policy and overall development strategies for the LDCs is crucial (Adapted from www.unctad.org).