BRASILIA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - People around the world are
preparing for floods, droughts and other natural disasters in
ways largely dictated by wealth and poverty as evidence of
climate change mounts, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.
Even if countries immediately took steps to cut greenhouse
gases, global temperatures would continue to rise through 2050
due to accumulated carbon emissions, the U.N. Development
Program said in its report. As a result climate disasters will
be more frequent.
"All countries will have to adapt to climate change," said
the report released in Brasilia on Tuesday.
Like many low-lying areas in the Netherlands, the town of
Maasbommel is vulnerable to flooding from rising river and sea
levels. Despite a sophisticated system of dikes, residents have
built 38 homes with their hollow foundations propped up by
steel stilts that allow them to float.
In Vietnam's Mekong Delta, one of the area's most
vulnerable to climate change, people also are trying to cope
with prospects of increased flooding from storms in the South
China Sea. They are being given life jackets and taught to swim
under a program sponsored by aid groups, the UNDP said.
The contrast between their bamboo stilts and earth dikes
with the flood defense systems in Maasbommel illustrates how
climate change "reinforces wider global inequalities," Kevin
Watkins, the report's lead author, told Reuters.
'MORALLY WRONG'
While people in rich countries can rely on public
investment, those in poor ones must largely help themselves,
the report said.
"Leaving the world's poor to sink or swim with their own
meager resources in the face of the threat posed by climate
change is morally wrong," Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond
Tutu of South Africa wrote in the report.
Britain spends $1.2 billion annually on flood defense and
is mulling an $8 billion investment for the Thames Barrier. The
U.S. state California is investing in water recycling and
efficiency as it expects a reduction of snow in the Sierra
Nevada mountain range, an important water source, by 37 percent
in 2035-64, and 79 percent in 2070-90, the report said.
While the Netherlands has 14 weather stations per 10,000
square km (3,860 sq miles) to monitor climate and Britain has
seven, African countries have less than one on average.
Still, some pilot projects in developing countries show
low-cost measures can make a difference. A simple monitoring
system that informs farmers of rain, for example, increased
productivity in Mali, the report said.
The UNDP urged rich countries to honor their pledges for
climate change aid to developing countries. Otherwise they
could face higher costs down the road.
"In the long run, the problems of the poor will arrive at
the doorstep of the wealthy, as the climate crisis gives way to
despair, anger and collective security threats," Tutu wrote.
