a unified earth theory: combining solutions to extreme poverty and the climate crisis

A UNIFIED EARTH THEORY: COMBINING SOLUTIONS TO EXTREME POVERTY AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS

ANIL KUMAR VENKAT EPURPast Chairman, CII – Southern Region

&Chairman, WWF – India, Andhra Pradesh

CII – PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT 2012

CLIMATE CRISIS: GROWTH AND GOOD GOVERNANCE TO AMELIORATE POVERTY

21 April 2023 - 1

21 April 2023 - 2Presentation to Company Name

A UNIFIED EARTH THEORY:COMBINING SOLUTIONS TO EXTREME POVERTY AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS

A UNIFIED EARTH THEORY:COMBINING SOLUTIONS TO EXTREME POVERTY AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS

The developing world needs to stop viewing climate change solely as an environmental issue, and begin approaching it as a development concern.

Our changing climate is a result of unsustainable development practices. And it is a serious threat to human progress everywhere.

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

CII – PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT 2012 21 April 2023 - 3

MDG Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target 1a: Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar and 25 cents a day by 2015


Effects of Climate Change on the poor:

Climate Change may reduce poor people’s livelihood assets for example health, access to water, homes and infrastructure. It may also alter the path and rate of economic growth due to changes in natural systems and resources, infrastructure and labour productivity. A reduction in economic growth directly impacts the poor through reduced income opportunities.

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Little scientific “doubt” about the emergence of climate change as an important risk----- well known to all


•Adaptation is necessary and there is a need to integrate responses to climate change and adaptation measures into strategies for poverty reduction to ensure sustainable development.

Better to be SAFE THAN SORRY

•Better have taken mitigating steps rather than deny the effects of Climate Change now and maybe face the consequences later on.

•Climate change is happening and will increasingly affect the poor


Poverty-related climate change impacts include:

•Reductions in crop yields in most tropical and subtropical regions

•Falls in agricultural productivity of up to 30%

•Marine life and the fishing industry will be severely affected in some places;

• Such changes would have a major impact on food security, employment, incomes and economic growth;

•Huge displacement of people from coastal and densely populated low-lying areas

•Exposure of millions of people to new health risks,


Climate Change and Extreme Poverty: the unholy nexus

•Poverty impacts tend to ignore the effect of aggregate economic growth on poverty and household welfare

•Empirical evidence available to date suggests that climate change will slow the pace of global poverty reduction

•Impacts of climate change on agricultural yields are generally a poor predictor of the poverty impacts of climate change at the national level

•Impacts of climate change are generally regressive, that is, they fall more heavily on the poor than the rich


However high growth partially ameliorates

•All societies and economies have developed mechanisms to cope with climate extremes and other natural hazards, which they face occasionally

•Trade, migration, or precautionary storage of food are examples of strategies to cope with adverse climatic conditions

•Capacity to cope with climate variability and extreme weather events in itself is highly dependent on the level of economic development

•Livelihood sources of the poor are usually narrower and more climate-sensitive than those of the non-poor

•Extreme weather events, which would cause limited damage and few casualties in a developed country, often cause extensive damage and substantial loss of life in a developing country


Both Mitigation and Adaptation are needed

•A “Mitigation Only” won’t work because it’s already too late to avoid

substantial climate change

• An “Adaptation Only” strategy won’t work because most adaptation

measures become more costly and less effective as the magnitude of the

changes to which one is trying to adapt gets larger.


Mitigation Strategies are well known: Strengthening Adaptation Efforts are required

Improved governance - active and responsible civil society and open, transparent, and accountable policy and decision making processes

First steps towards mainstreaming climate issues into all national, sub-national, and sectoral planning processes

Encouraging a ministry with a broad mandate

Combining approaches at the government and institutional level with bottom-up approaches rooted in regional, national, and local knowledge and requirements

Empowerment of communities

Vulnerability assessments

Access to good quality information about the impacts of climate change like Early warning systems

Integration of impacts into macroeconomic projections


Impact of growth and good governance•The impacts of climate change on agricultural yields may actually be a rather poor predictor of the poverty impacts of climate change

•Mediating factors that can mitigate the impacts on the level of household welfare, includes: ability to migrate or switch employment between agricultural and non-agricultural occupations, the extent of policy induced adaptation through prices and explicit government programs, such as providing access to housing, health care, employment, training and education, credit and insurance

•Distribution of productive endowments (irrigated and non-irrigated land, skilled and unskilled labour), and the dual role of rural households as consumers and producers of food -and whether they are net consumers or producers- will determine how the impacts are distributed among the population

•Economic growth, often absent in the discussion of future impacts of a warming world, will have a tremendous ameliorating effect through the decrease of the food expenditure share on total expenditure, and the reduction of the relative weight of agriculture in national GDP


Contd

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Predicted poverty rates in India with climate change

Source: Jacoby, Rabassa, and Skoufias (2011), World Bank, Policy Research Working Paper 5622

Notes: Annual growth rates in mean consumption derived from several NSS rounds are drawn from Datt and Ravallion (2011). Low growth refers to 1958-199. Medium growth rates to 1991-2006. High Growth simply doubles the growth rates under the medium growth rate scenario.

For example, climate change may have a negative effect on agricultural productivity and also affect poor people’s livelihood through its effects on health, access to water and natural resources, and infrastructure.

Base YearNo

Growth Low

Growth Medium Growth

High Growth

2004/05 2040 2040 2040 2040

Rural 48.8 54.8 35.8 18.3 2.1

Urban 31.1 32.3 15.7 5.8 0.2

All 44.5 49.4 31 15.3 1.1


GOVERNANCE- A paradigm shift essential

LOVE THE POOR- NOT POVERTY ---- ENSURE A BETTER QUALITY OF

LIFE•Do not impose one’s opinion on the poor- ask them. They may surprise you with what they want

•Shift development strategies from competitive subsidies to investment in technologies, R & D, education and physical infrastructure

•Encourage shift in gainful employment- divert from over dependence on land and water, especially in threatened zones

•Encourage labour intensive manufacturing for at least one generation- facilitate by modifying laws on land use, labour, industrial development etc.

•Promote “Semi-Rural Urbanisation’ to facilitate better resource delivery and use and employment in industry and services.


CHANGE

OR THE CLIMATE

WILL……!


a unified earth theory: combining solutions to extreme poverty and the climate crisis

Documents

effects of climate change

emergence of climate

climate extremes

climate crisisthe

changing climate

extreme poverty

richcii partnership

allcii partnership summit