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Mehr News, Iran
TEHRAN,
Dec. 4 (MNA) -- Knut Ostby, the UN resident coordinator and UNDP
resident representative in Iran, presented the 2007/2008 HDR (Human
Development Report) at the UN Information Center in Tehran at a press
conference on Sunday.
The
HDR is an independent report commissioned by UNDP and produced by a
selected team of leading scholars and development practitioners. They
draw on a worldwide network of leaders from academia, government and
civil society who contribute data, ideas, and best practices in
producing the report. Created
in 1990 and released annually, HDR’s single goal is to put people back
at the centre of development. It attempts to frame debates on some of
the most pressing challenges facing humanity. Each report focuses on a
topical development issue – from gender equality, to democracy, to
human rights, environment, globalization and cultural liberty. It
also contains substantive data on development indicators, ranking every
country each year in areas such as per capita income, literacy, life
expectancy and respect for women's rights. Following is the text of the report: • Climate
change is not just a future scenario. Increased exposure to droughts,
floods and storms is already destroying opportunity and reinforcing
inequality. Meanwhile, there is now overwhelming scientific evidence
that we are getting closer to an irreversible ecological catastrophe.
This could lead to an unprecedented reversal in human development in
our lifetime and acute risks for our children and their grandchildren. • Climate
change is affecting the Earth’s ecosystems. We depend on these
ecosystems for a range of services and resources – from water to
agriculture to livelihoods and many others. Therefore,
climate change poses a serious threat to our ability to meet the eight
Millennium Development Goals. The fact that the poor are already seeing
its impacts only underscores the worsening situation if significant
efforts to stop climate change are not taken. • The
Human Development Report 2007/2008 “Fighting climate change: Human
solidarity in a divided world” seeks to understand the implications of
climate change on the opportunities the world has at present and its
implications for the future of human development. One of its
distinctive features is the work done for the understanding how climate
events impact on the poor. • Climate
change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century.
Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse
international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and
populations will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even
though they have contributed least to the problem. Looking to the
future, no country—however wealthy or powerful—will be immune to the
impact of climate change. • The
poor are suffering and will suffer more with climate change. Given that
40 per cent of the world’s population live in poverty and are unable to
meet their daily basic needs, these 2.6 billion people are at risk to
face firsthand the impacts of dangerous climate change and human
development reversals. • The
Report makes a case for the urgency with which climate change needs to
be addressed. Time matters for all of us. Today we are living with what
we did yesterday; tomorrow we will all live with what we do today. We
need to take action now. Key statistical facts • We
estimate in this Report that if all of the world’s people generated
greenhouse gases at the same rate as some developed countries (i.e
Canada and the United States), we would need nine planets (to absorb
the GHGs and avoid dangerous climate change) • With 15% of the world’s population, rich countries account for almost half of (annual, global) emissions of CO2. • We
estimate that avoiding dangerous climate change will require rich
nations to cut emissions by at least 80% by 2050, with cuts of 30% by
2020. Emissions from developing countries will peak around 2020, with
cuts of 20% by 2050. • Some 262 million people were affected by climate disasters annually from 2000 to 2004, over 98% of them in the developing world. • Global
temperature increases of 3-4°C could result in 330 million people being
permanently or temporarily displaced through flooding. Over 70 million
people in • With 3°C of warming, 20-30% of land species could face extinction. • An
additional 220-400 million people could be exposed to malaria – a
disease that already claims around 1 million lives annually. Recommendations • There
is a window of opportunity for avoiding the most damaging climate
change impacts, but that window is closing: the world has less than a
decade to change course. Actions taken—or not taken—in the years ahead
will have a profound bearing on the future course of human development.
The world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological
capabilities to act. What is missing is a sense of urgency, human
solidarity and collective interest. • The
Report demonstrates and emphasizes the need to address adaptation in
developing countries in the face of impending climate change. It
advocates for human solidarity, collective action and social justice as
the keys to meeting the challenges posed by climate change and as the
pillars of international cooperation moving forward from the 13th
Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change which is set to start tomorrow (today) in • As
the Human Development Report 2007/2008 argues, climate change poses
challenges at many levels. In a divided but ecologically interdependent
world, it challenges all people to reflect upon how we manage the
environment of the one thing that we share in common: planet Earth. It
challenges us to reflect on social justice and human rights across
countries and generations. It challenges political leaders and people
in rich nations to acknowledge their historic responsibility for the
problem, and to initiate deep and early cuts in greenhouse gas
emissions. Above all, it challenges the entire human community to
undertake prompt and strong collective action based on shared values
and a shared vision. • The
Human Development Report 2007/2008 emphasizes that both mitigation;
that is reducing the damage being done to the climate daily; and
adaptation; that is adjusting our lives to the change; need to be
addressed in order to truly fight climate change and the threats it
poses to humanity. • Most
wealthy countries, specifically industrialized countries, are failing
to meet their targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions under the
Kyoto Protocol. Even countries with the most ambitious goals or praised
plans are not on track to reduce emissions levels sufficiently. The
resulting effects will be felt first—and hardest—by the world’s poor. • Wealthy
countries must assume responsibility for the effects of warming trends
on the world’s poor, and Asian countries, while adapting to their
effects, need to continue to develop, but cleanly. The report
recommends international cooperation on financing for low-carbon
technology transfer to developing countries, e.g. • The
United Nations is built on the foundations of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. The Preamble to that document talks of the inalienable
rights of the human family to “freedom, justice and peace”. Climate
change is an immense threat to these rights. Yet it is also a reminder
that we are a single, interdependent human family sharing a common home
on Planet Earth. The United Nations, and the values that underpin it,
has a central role to play in providing a forum for dialogue,
negotiation and action on climate change. The United Nations is best
placed to take leadership in the fight against climate change. Climate
change is exactly the kind of global challenge that the United Nations
is best suited to address. This is why the Secretary-General has made
it his personal priority to work with Member States to ensure that the
United Nations plays its role to the full.
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