Poverty in B'desh can get worse as fallout of climatic onslaught
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
FE Report
Poverty in Bangladesh and South Asia can get worse as the fallout of a climatic onslaught, whatever scale it may be, a top climate economist at the World Bank has warned.
"Even small climate shocks can cause irreversible losses and tip a large number of people into destitution," said the bank's lead environmental economist Richard Damania.
Mr Damania, also listed poverty and population increase, urbanisation, water shortage and natural disasters as four key factors that could make the region vulnerable to the impact of a changing climate.
His warning came as climate officials, experts and donor representatives from across the region this week gathered to the Nepali capital of Kathmandu to forge regional cooperation for offsetting the potential climate crisis.
Bangladesh's poverty reduction in 2008 was slower than anticipated as higher food prices impinged on the country's anti-poverty efforts, the global lender said after an assessment of Bangladesh's poverty situation.
The United Nations has estimated that last year's shocks from high food prices plunged an additional 7.5 million people into the poverty trap.
South Asia has the highest density of poverty in the world, with an estimated 600 million South Asians subsisting on less than US$ 1.25 a day.
Climate experts say exceptional scale of impacts including sea-level rise would directly affect at least 30 per cent of Bangladesh's population, all stretching current adaptation to limit.
Even massive migration is likely to happen, they said.
Given the current trends, Mr Damania, now in Kathmandu to attend the climate conference, said that the region would host five of the world's 11 megacities including Dhaka.
At 25 per cent, Bangladesh is also a rapidly urbanising nation, with the UN predicting that urban people would surpass the rural population by mid-century.
"It's the urban poor and slum dwellers who will pay the biggest price of climate change," said M Aminul Islam, assistant country director of UN Development Programme, in a recent interview.
In addition, the bank economist said the region suffers an exceptionally high number of natural disasters.
Between 1990 and 2008, more than 750 million people-half South Asia's population-were affected by a natural calamity, leaving almost 60,000 dead and resulting in about $45 billion in damages.
Another factor complicating the region's future is a looming water scarcity.
The bank said that the ice mass covering the Himalayan-Hindu Kush mountain range is the source of the nine largest rivers of Asia, including the Ganges, Brahmapautra and Indus.
Mr Damania said that glacial melt coupled with more variable precipitation could severely compromise livelihoods and the future prospects of agriculture.
Poverty in Bangladesh and South Asia can get worse as the fallout of a climatic onslaught, whatever scale it may be, a top climate economist at the World Bank has warned.
"Even small climate shocks can cause irreversible losses and tip a large number of people into destitution," said the bank's lead environmental economist Richard Damania.
Mr Damania, also listed poverty and population increase, urbanisation, water shortage and natural disasters as four key factors that could make the region vulnerable to the impact of a changing climate.
His warning came as climate officials, experts and donor representatives from across the region this week gathered to the Nepali capital of Kathmandu to forge regional cooperation for offsetting the potential climate crisis.
Bangladesh's poverty reduction in 2008 was slower than anticipated as higher food prices impinged on the country's anti-poverty efforts, the global lender said after an assessment of Bangladesh's poverty situation.
The United Nations has estimated that last year's shocks from high food prices plunged an additional 7.5 million people into the poverty trap.
South Asia has the highest density of poverty in the world, with an estimated 600 million South Asians subsisting on less than US$ 1.25 a day.
Climate experts say exceptional scale of impacts including sea-level rise would directly affect at least 30 per cent of Bangladesh's population, all stretching current adaptation to limit.
Even massive migration is likely to happen, they said.
Given the current trends, Mr Damania, now in Kathmandu to attend the climate conference, said that the region would host five of the world's 11 megacities including Dhaka.
At 25 per cent, Bangladesh is also a rapidly urbanising nation, with the UN predicting that urban people would surpass the rural population by mid-century.
"It's the urban poor and slum dwellers who will pay the biggest price of climate change," said M Aminul Islam, assistant country director of UN Development Programme, in a recent interview.
In addition, the bank economist said the region suffers an exceptionally high number of natural disasters.
Between 1990 and 2008, more than 750 million people-half South Asia's population-were affected by a natural calamity, leaving almost 60,000 dead and resulting in about $45 billion in damages.
Another factor complicating the region's future is a looming water scarcity.
The bank said that the ice mass covering the Himalayan-Hindu Kush mountain range is the source of the nine largest rivers of Asia, including the Ganges, Brahmapautra and Indus.
Mr Damania said that glacial melt coupled with more variable precipitation could severely compromise livelihoods and the future prospects of agriculture.