Climate change could result in 100 million poor – World Bank

Climate change could push more than 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030 by disrupting agriculture and fueling the spread of malaria and other diseases, according to the World Bank report. The report was released on Sunday weeks ahead of a U.N. climate summit in French capital Paris. It highlighted how the impact of global warming is borne unevenly, with the world’s poor woefully unprepared to deal with climate shocks such as rising seas or severe droughts. “They have fewer resources and receive less support from family, community, the financial system, and even social safety nets to prevent, cope and adapt,” the World Bank said. How to help poor countries and poor communities deal with climate change is one of the key issues in talks on a global climate accord that’s supposed to be adopted next month in Paris. Despite pledges to rein in emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases, climate change might not stop anytime soon. Carbon emissions are expected to rise for many years as China, India and other developing countries expand the use of fossil fuels to power their economies. But efforts to protect the poor, such as generally improving access to health care and social safety nets, and targeted measures to upgrade flood defenses and deploy more heat-tolerant crops could prevent most of the negative consequences of climate change on poverty, the bank said.

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Climate change could result in 100 million poor – World Bank