Climate Change and Global Poverty: A Billion Lives in the Balance?

313 Pages·2.987 MB·English

by  Lael Brainard, Abigail Jones, Nigel Purvis

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Advance Praise for /

Climate Change and Global Poverty J
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“C limate Change and Global Poverty provides a much needed blueprint for
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overcoming the two great crises of our time. This book defines what needs to
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be done and how to do it. It is a welcomed resource.” u
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— Helene D. Gayle, President and CEO, CARE USA v
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“C limate Change and Global Poverty is an urgently needed source of excellent
analysis and compelling ideas. We no longer have the luxury of viewing climate
Climate Change
change and poverty as disconnected, and this book spurs us to tackle two of
the greatest challenges of our time with informed and innovative solutions.”
— Nancy Lindborg, President, Mercy Corps C
“T his book breaks new ground by showing how solutions to climate change li and Global Poverty
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and global poverty are intertwined. The authors define what needs to be done
with refreshing clarity, and offer practical recommendations that are at once a
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idealistic and yet firmly grounded in political realities and national interests.” e
— Frank Loy, former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
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A B i lli on live s i n Th e BAlAn ce?
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Climate change threatens all people, but its adverse effects will be felt most
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acutely by the world’s poor. Absent urgent action, new threats to food security,
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public health, and other societal needs may reverse hard-fought human development
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gains. Climate Change and Global Poverty makes concrete recommendations
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to integrate international development and climate protection strategies. It
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demonstrates that effective climate solutions must empower global development,
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while poverty alleviation itself must become a central strategy for both mitigating
emissions and reducing global vulnerability to adverse climate impacts. l
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lael Brainard served as vice president and director of the Brookings a
Institution’s Global Economy and Development program, 2006–09. She has l

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been nominated by President Barack Obama to be under secretary of the
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U.S. Treasury for international affairs. Abigail Jones is a research analyst with
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Brookings. nigel Purvis is the president of Climate Advisers and a visiting
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scholar at Resources for the Future. He is a former senior U.S. climate change r
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negotiator, acting most recently as deputy assistant secretary of state for y
oceans, environment, and science. Lael Brainard, Abigail Jones,
A Brookings Blum Roundtable Project and Nigel Purvis, Editors
BROOkINGS INSTITUTION PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.brookings.edu
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Climate Change
and
Global Poverty
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Climate Change
and
Global Poverty
A Billion Lives in the Balance?
LAEL BRAINARD
ABIGAIL JONES
NIGEL PURVIS
Editors
brookings institution press
Washington, D.C.
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Copyright © 2009
the brookings institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
www.brookings.edu
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing
from the Brookings Institution Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Climate change and global poverty : a billion lives in the balance? / Lael Brainard,
Abigail Jones, Nigel Purvis, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “Discusses how climate solutions must empower global development by
improving livelihoods, health, and economic prospects and how poverty alleviation
must become a central strategy for reducing global vulnerability to adverse climate
impacts. Draws on expertise to ask how public, private sectors can help the poor
manage the global climate crisis”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-8157-0281-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Climatic changes—Economic aspects. 2. Global environmental change.
3. Global temperature changes. 4. Poverty—Government policy. 5. Economic
geography. 6. Economic development—International cooperation. I. Brainard, Lael.
II. Jones, Abigail. III. Purvis, Nigel. IV. Title.
QC903.C545 2009
362.5'56—dc22 2009014999
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed on acid-free paper.
Typeset in Adobe Garamond
Composition by Cynthia Stock
Silver Spring, Maryland
Printed by R. R. Donnelley
Harrisonburg, Virginia
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Contents
Foreword vii
Strobe Talbott
Introduction 1
1
Double Jeopardy: What the Climate Crisis Means
for the Poor 10
Abigail Jones,Vinca LaFleur,and Nigel Purvis
2
Climate Change Impacts in the Developing World:
Implications for Sustainable Development 43
Anthony Nyong
3
Toward a New International Climate Change Agreement 65
Elliot Diringer
4
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Efforts in China:
Progress and Opportunities 79
Ned Helme
5
Linking Communities, Forests, and Carbon 87
Michael Jenkins
6
Integrating Climate Change into Development:
Multiple Benefits of Mitigation and Adaptation 104
Atiq Rahman
7
Development in the Balance: Agriculture and Water 120
Robert Mendelsohn
v
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vi Contents
8
Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change
in Low-Income Countries 130
Kristie L.Ebi
9
Linking Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction 142
Saleemul Huq and Jessica Ayers
10
The Climate-Security Connection:
What It Means for the Poor 155
Joshua W.Busby
11
Financing Adaptation to a Warmer World:
Opportunities for Innovation and Experimentation 181
Manish Bapna and Heather McGray
12
Exploring the Potential for Public-Private Insurance
to Help the World’s Poor to Adapt and Thrive as the
Climate Changes 207
Ian Burton and Thea Dickinson
13
Corporate Action on Climate Adaptation and Development:
Mobilizing New Partnerships to Build Climate Change
Resilience in Developing Countries and Communities 223
Jane Nelson
14
Mobilizing Action for Climate Change Adaptation
in the North and South 260
Heather K.Coleman,Raymond C.Offenheiser,
and David Waskow
Contributors 277
Index 287
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Foreword
A
LTHOUGH CLIMATE CHANGE is a global threat, it is especially menacing to
the world’s poor. As the mean temperature of the Earth rises, the impact
of climate change on sources of water and food, and on health and living
standards, will be greater in those regions that are already struggling. Waves
of “climate refugees,” damage to traditional cultures, increasingly frequent
and severe floods and droughts—these and other results of global warming
will constitute a humanitarian disaster on top of the environmental one.
The costs of climate change will be political—and geopolitical—as well.
Weak states will become failed ones, and failed states will erupt in chaos
across borders. Hard-fought human development gains will likely be com-
promised with serious implications for global security, political stability, and
world prosperity. Already, we have seen cyclones ravaging an ill-equipped
Myanmar and water insecurity propelling conflict in Sudan. Climate Change
and Global Poverty: A Billion Lives in the Balance? draws on expertise from
both the climate change and development communities to assess what can be
done to turn the climate crisis into opportunities for sustainable develop-
ment. From forest conservation and energy efficiency to “climate-proofing”
agriculture and health, this volume examines how climate change is likely to
affect the developing world, what preventive actions might minimize its
adverse effects and maximize growth, and how these efforts might be
financed by mobilizing both the public and private sectors.
This volume, edited by Lael Brainard, Abigail Jones, and Nigel Purvis,
includes chapters by Jessica Ayers of the London School of Economics and
vii
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viii Foreword
Political Science, Manish Bapna of the World Resources Institute, Ian Burton
of the University of Toronto, Joshua W. Busby of the University of Texas at
Austin, Heather K. Coleman of Oxfam America, Thea Dickinson of the
Clean Air Partnership, Elliot Diringer of the Pew Center on Global Climate
Change, Kristie L. Ebi of ESS, LLC, Ned Helme of the Center for Clean Air
Policy, Saleemul Huq of the International Institute for Environment and
Development, Michael Jenkins of Forest Trends, Vinca LaFleur of West
Wing Writers, Heather McGray of the World Resources Institute, Robert
Mendelsohn of Yale University, Jane Nelson of the John F. Kennedy School
of Government at Harvard University, Anthony Nyong of the African Devel-
opment Bank, Raymond C. Offenheiser of Oxfam America, Atiq Rahman of
the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, and David Waskow of Oxfam
America. The chapters were commissioned for the Brookings Blum Round-
table convened at the Aspen Institute from August 1 to August 3, 2008. This
event—hosted by Richard C. Blum of Blum Capital Partners and Lael
Brainard and myself of Brookings, with the support of honorary co-chairs
Mary Robinson of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative and
Walter Isaacson of the Aspen Institute—explored “Development in the Bal-
ance: How Will the World’s Poor Cope with Climate Change?”
The editors wish to extend special thanks and recognition to Ann
DeFabio Doyle of Brookings for creative input and outreach, Raji Jagadeesan
and Anne Smith of Brookings for their unwavering support, and Amy Wong
of Brookings for tireless budget management. To Alfred Imhoff we owe many
thanks and much gratitude for his patience and precision. Thanks are also
due to Larry Converse, Christopher Kelaher, Janet Walker, and Susan
Woollen of the Brookings Institution Press for helping to bring the manu-
script to publication. The authors remain responsible for the content of their
chapters and for any errors or omissions.
This book was made possible by generous support from the Rockefeller
Foundation and Dick Blum, whom we are proud to call a trustee.
Strobe Talbott
President
The Brookings Institution
Washington, D.C.
April 2009
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Climate Change
and
Global Poverty