Climate change: a development change
Climate change is one of the most serious threats the world faces. It will affect all of us, but will have a disproportionate impact on millions of poor rural people. Climate change is a challenge to everyone working in development and will make it more difficult to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. If we are to meet this goal, we must not only help poor rural people cope with climate change, we must enable them to be part of the solution.
More than three billion people live in rural areas of developing countries. Most live on less than US$2 a day. Poor rural people are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Many live on ecologically fragile land and depend on agriculture, livestock, fisheries and forestry. Poor rural people lack the institutional and financial capacity to withstand the impact of climate change. We are already seeing the effects of climate change on agriculture in developing countries. Crop failures and livestock deaths are causing higher economic losses and undermining food security with ever-greater frequency, especially in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Food prices are rising. Crop yields The World Bank estimates that agriculture and deforestation account for 26 to 35 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet agriculture and forestry can play a key role in tackling climate change. Afforestation and reforestation, better land management practices such as conservation tillage and agroforestry, rehabilitation of degraded crop and pasture land and better livestock management practices can all contribute significantly to reducing carbon emissions. Poor rural people manage vast areas of land and forest, and can be important players in natural resource management and carbon sequestration. Our efforts to slow climate change will be more effective if we recognize their role as custodians of the natural resource base, ensure they have access to the technology and financing they need, and compensate them for the environmental services they provide that benefit all of us. Carbon trading schemes need to include a way to compensate poor rural people for carbon sequestration. Support for soil conservation, incentives for sustainable production practices and payment for carbon sequestration and avoided deforestation are all part of the solution. In response to the growing magnitude of climate change, IFAD is increasingly integrating adaptation into its operations and contributing to mitigation programmes to make them beneficial to poor rural people. By listening to the voices of poor rural people when planning adaptation and mitigation processes, we can reduce the risks of climate change, while accelerating progress towards a world without poverty. Source: IFAD |
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For IFAD, climate change has a special significance. Our mission is to enable poor rural people to overcome poverty. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for most poor rural people, and it is also the human activity most directly affected by climate change.