Climate change threatens achievement of zero-poverty goals
Zero poverty is achievable by 2030 years according to Bono in a recent TED talk. UNDP has just published its 2013 Human Development Report. It charts the rapid progress in reducing poverty but does not make predictions as to when poverty will be eradicated. Instead the report points to areas to facilitate continued “momentum” in development progress. These include enhancing equity, enabling voice and participation, confronting environmental challenges and managing demographic change.
Bono confident on poverty reduction targets being achieved
Image: David Shankbone, flickr
“Environmental inaction, especially regarding climate change, has the potential to halt or even reverse human development progress. The number of people in extreme poverty could increase by up to 3 billion by 2050 unless environmental disasters are averted by coordinated global action”
“Although poor countries contribute the least to global climate change, they are likely to experience the greatest loss in annual rainfall and the sharpest increases in its variability, with dire implications for agricultural production and livelihoods,”
Trade is discussed under the category of “enhanced connectedness”.
Some trade facts from the report:
- Interdependence in commerce is allowing more people to participate in the global marketplace. The global trade to GDP ratio, a conventional measure of trade integration, has risen from 2% in 1800 to 22% in 1913 today’s 56%.
- At least 15 developing countries have substantial trading relationships with more than 100 trade partners as both exporters and importers, up from about 6 in 1996.
- The South now accounts for half of global trade flows, up from barely a quarter 30 years ago. These increasing trade connections are deepening on a South–South basis, than on the traditional North–South axis. A substantial share of South−South trade continues to be driven by demand in the North, but the opposite is also true: developing countries are major importers from the North.
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