Cities in developing countries absorb 70 million new people every year. The urban population in these countries is expected to double by 2050. Approximately one billion people live in unsanitary slums. They could be 2 billion by 2030, according to the UN. The urban population living in slums accounts for 99 percent in Ethiopia and Chad, and 92 percent in Nepal.
There is something inherently wrong in the fight against climate change in cities of developing countries. Rich countries and international agencies focus on the mitigation of global warming by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. But in most cities in poor countries, this move may both be unfair and inefficient. It may be unjust because the urban population that is most vulnerable to climate risks contributes little to global warming. The proposal may also be inefficient because there is not much to cut in these cities. Their emissions of greenhouse gases are already relatively low. Instituting limit may even hinder the development of these countries.
The real urgency for poor countries is to adapt to climate change, not fight against its causes. It must be a major consideration as to how people live in risk areas which lack infrastructure protection, and lack the means to avoid or limit the impact of climate change. The poorest people are settled on land with most risk such as flood plains or unstable slopes. And they are reluctant to leave, even temporarily, for fear of not being able to return to their illegally occupied places.
Add to this precarious construction is the lack of clean drinking water, sanitation, electricity, solid waste collection, and other vulnerabilities that are worsened by climate change. It is these that adaptation policies must meet.
If the new climate policies that will be forged in Copenhagen in December are not actively directed towards the poorest, they will have serious social consequences. Many, if not most, of the new environmental projects serve only the interests of the rich and which, if one looks closely, are actually anti-poor.
New climate policies should actively include on the negotiation table the ones that stand as the biggest victims of climate change. The urban poor in developing countries are the biggest stakeholders in a global climate policy.
Via SDCC
