UN agency: climate change will hit agriculture in developing countries, increase poverty

October 12th, 2009 UN: Agriculture investment must increase 5-foldROME — Agricultural investment in developing countries will have to increase more than fivefold to ensure that by 2050 the world has enough to eat, a U.N. food agency said Monday.

October 6th, 2009 BANGKOK - The World Bank has estimated that industrialised countries will have to pay developing nations $100 billion a year from now till 2050 to battle climate change. But there is no money nor any commitment on the table though over 4,000 delegates from 177 countries are squabbling here over who will govern the fund if it comes into being.

September 22nd, 2009 UNITED NATIONS - Warning that the global economic recession could hinder the ability of countries to take necessary steps to combat climate change, President Barack Obama Tuesday told world leaders "we are determined to act". "The journey is hard.

September 22nd, 2009 UNITED NATIONS - Asserting that India has not caused the climate change problem in any way, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said New Delhi will be part of the solution, but the outcome must be rooted in equity.

September 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A global warming of two degrees Celsius -- the minimum the world is likely to experience -- could result in permanent GDP reductions of four-five percent for South Asia, warns a new World Bank report. But if developed countries act now, a 'climate-smart' world is feasible, and the costs for getting there will be high but still manageable, says the report, adding that high-income countries also need to act quickly to reduce their carbon footprints and boost development of alternative energy sources to help tackle the problem of climate change.

September 16th, 2009 LONDON - More than four million children could die unless world leaders deliver additional funds to help poor countries fight climate change, a report warned Wednesday. Rich countries must come up with additional funds for fighting climate change, rather than raid the money from existing aid promises, said the report by the international nongovernment organisation Oxfam.

September 7th, 2009 TOKYO - Japan's premier-designate said Monday that his incoming government wants to make deeper cuts in the country's emissions of greenhouse gases. Yukio Hatoyama, who is slated to become the next prime minister after his Democratic Party of Japan won last week's parliamentary election, said the party wants emissions cuts of 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.

July 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Students holding banners and posters Monday sent out a message to visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying the US should take responsibility for being one of the "biggest" contributors to the climate change, before it blamed the developing world. Siddharth Pathak of Greenpeace, an NGO that had organised the students' protest, said: "The US is one of the biggest culprits contributing to global warming, which has led to an increase in the intensity of disasters including the cyclone in Sundarbans leading to a humanitarian crisis.

July 18th, 2009 MUMBAI - There is "no inherent contradiction between poverty eradication and moving towards a low-carbon economy", US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday, signalling her government's approach towards India in the area of combating climate change. "The United States fully supports India's efforts to move all its people out of poverty," Clinton said at a news conference here.

July 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Among all other adverse effects that climate change can and has been bringing about is lessening work productivity, according to an Oxfam report which says the productivity in Delhi can drop by 30 percent because of the global warming. The report, 'Suffering the Science - Climate Change, People and Poverty', said besides the more visible effects of climate change - the scanty rainfall these monsoons for instance - there are a whole lot of other implications that have been and will affect our lives.

July 9th, 2009 L'AQUILA - Developed countries comprising the G8 are unwilling to commit themselves to reducing greenhouse gas emissions drastically by 2020, despite scientists across the world and developing countries urging them to do so. With the issue of climate change becoming significant during the G8-G5 summit here, especially in the run-up to the UN climate change summit to be held in Copenhagen this December, emerging economies of the G5 are exerting pressure on the G8 to commit to earlier targets on reducing emissions.

July 8th, 2009 L'AQUILA - Agriculture and food security need to be placed at the "core of the international agenda", Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said after the G5 meeting here Wednesday, on the eve of the emerging countries' interaction with the G8 nations. "The developing countries are the most affected by high food prices.

July 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - India is now spending over 2.6 percent of its gross domestic product to adapt to climate change, says the country's annual Economic Survey, tabled in parliament Thursday by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The effect of climate change on "agriculture, water resources, health and sanitation, forests, coastal-zone infrastructure and extreme events" are "specific areas of concern", says the survey.

June 12th, 2009 BONN - Climate negotiators from the Obama administration will be in New Delhi to hold bilateral talks on what India is ready to do to tackle global warming, the leader of the US delegation to a UN conclave said here Friday. Jonathan Pershing, who led the US delegation at these preparatory talks of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the December summit in Copenhagen, said he had met the leader of the Indian delegation Shyam Saran on the sidelines of the talks here.

May 29th, 2009 Climate-change diasters kill 300,000 a yearLONDON — Climate-change disasters kill around 300,000 people a year and cause about $125 billion in economic losses, mainly from agriculture, a think-tank led by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reported Friday.