Resource information
This edition of environment matters
arrives just as the international community embarks on a
two-year process to secure a new global framework to limit
the amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) entering the
atmosphere and devise ways to help developing countries
adapt to and prepare themselves for the effects of climate
change. At the World Bank, the author believe that climate
change, and developing countries' adaptation to it, is
a critical challenge of our time that must be integrated
into core development strategies. Changes in temperatures
and weather patterns will affect the frequency and severity
of rainfall, droughts, floods, and access to water, flood
protection, health, and the use of land. These impacts will
not be evenly distributed. The poorest countries and people,
those least responsible for climate change and least able to
cope with it, will suffer earliest and most due to their
geographical location, low incomes, and low institutional
capacity, as well as their greater reliance on
climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture. This is why
building up resilience to increasing climate variability is
the most significant climate challenge facing many
developing countries. But we believe that adaptation, while
necessary in and of itself, can also serve to meet the
development objectives of countries. Many appropriate
adaptive measures are consistent with good development
practice. They can improve the local environment, increase
resilience to current and future climate variability and to
natural disasters, and ease the dissemination of innovative
technologies. They can also reduce resource scarcity within
specific social groups or regions, thereby addressing some
of the principal causes of social unrest and violent strife.
In other words, climate action is development action.
