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10 - Global poverty and climate change: towards the responsibility to protect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2011

By
Asunción Lera St. Clair
Edited by
Karen O'Brien ,
Asunción Lera St. Clair  and
Berit Kristoffersen
Asunción Lera St. Clair
Affiliation:
University of Bergen, Norway
Karen O'Brien
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Oslo
Asunción Lera St. Clair
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Bergen, Norway
Berit Kristoffersen
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Tromsø, Norway
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Summary

One of the ironies about this financial crisis is that it makes action on poverty look utterly achievable. It would cost $5 billion to save six million children's lives. World leaders could find 140 times that amount for the banking system in a week. How can they now tell us that action for the poorest on the planet is too expensive?

John Sentamu, Archbishop of York

Introduction

I will start this chapter by stating the obvious – that the regions, communities and individuals that are already being affected by climate change and will be hardest hit in the future are those with the least capacity to cope with the consequences, and those who have contributed least to the problem. This includes poor countries, poor people and marginalised and vulnerable individuals and groups in all societies, including those living in advanced economies in the West. What follows from this, however, are three important claims that form the basis of my argument in this chapter. First, I argue that the most efficient way to promote sustainable adaptation to unavoidable climate change is the immediate eradication of severe poverty, the building of solid welfare systems and social protection, and the minimisation of inequalities. This calls for radical changes in the theory and practice of poverty reduction and a shift from the emerging focus on market-based solutions to climate change.

Type
Chapter
Information
Climate Change, Ethics and Human Security , pp. 180 - 198
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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