Sustainable development in a changing climate : fifth report of session 2008-09, Vol. 1: Report, together with formal minutes

Climate change threatens to destroy gains made in poverty reduction in many developing countries.

Substantial funding will be needed to help poor countries tackle climate change.

This funding must be additional to pledges already made for development assistance because developing countries are not responsible for the emissions that have caused climate change and the estimated costs cannot be met from existing development assistance or national budgets. Following are the Committee's conclusions and recommendations: the current economic crisis could derail efforts to tackle climate change or it could provide an opportunity to chart a new 'greener' growth strategy in developing; climate change should be central to the Department for International Development's (DFID's) work in developing countries and it needs to start establishing comprehensive climate change programmes; sustainable management of the natural resource base is vital (DFID has focussed on water resources management and it should now consider the creation of marine and forestry management strategies to ensure that these sectors can continue to contribute to economic growth, in a sustainable manner); and, developed countries should ensure that actions taken to reduce emissions do not impact negatively on developing countries. It also includes the following: tourism and export horticulture are important contributors to poverty reduction in many poor countries and these sectors should be supported to increase their pro-poor benefits and reduce their climate change impact; there is a need for more research into low carbon options that are appropriate for poor countries and for mechanisms to facilitate knowledge and technology transfer; and, the Copenhagen Conference to decide the successor to the Kyoto Agreement must agree stringent emission reduction targets or increase the risk of more severe climate change impacts.