From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

FROM POVERTY TO POWERCLIMATE CHANGEClimate change is no longer merely a potential threat, the distantconsequence of continued pollution. Scientific analysis of theEuropean heat-wave of 2003 that killed over 30,000 people showed itto be more clearly attributable to global warming than any previousdisaster – climate change finally had its smoking gun. 213 In 2007, a yearof climatic crises included Africa’s worst floods in three decades,unprecedented flooding in Mexico, massive floods in South Asia, andheat waves and forest fires in Europe and Australia. Each disaster reaffirmedthe shift from potential to actual impacts reflected in theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 report. The challengethis presents the international community has never been cleareror more urgent.In the rich countries, governments are already responding – theUK has nearly doubled spending on flood control and coastal erosion 214– and insurance premiums are rising in tandem with the added risks.As discussed in Part 4, developing countries face far greater risks fromclimate change, because they are exposed to more intense climaterelatedhazards and because poor people and communities are lesswell equipped to withstand such shocks. Without urgent action,climate change will undermine decades of development and willincrease poverty and inequality at both global and national levels.Even rich countries are not immune to such dramatic impacts – butpoor countries are being affected first, and worst.406