World Bank: Climate Change Could Add 100 Million Poor by 2030

FILE – А boy is seen eating dry couscous in the village of Goudoude Diobe, in the Matam region of northeastern Senegal.

The World Bank is warning that global warming will push 100 million more people into poverty across the globe in the next 15 years, in the absence of further action by developed nations to curb rising temperatures.

In a report released Sunday, the bank called for “rapid, inclusive and climate smart development, together with emission reductions” aimed at protecting the world’s most vulnerable inhabitants.

The report, entitled “Shockwaves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty,” comes ahead of a global summit on climate change that opens November 30 in Paris.

It also follows last week’s United Nations warning that voluntary carbon emission cutting pledges from industrialized nations go nowhere near far enough to prevent a looming crisis.

Current recommendations call for global measures aimed at limiting temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius in this century.

But Friday’s U.N. Environment Program report said existing pledges – if honored – will yield only a third of the reductions needed by 2030 to preserve that long-range target.

Key elements in the World Bank report include warnings that 150 million more poor people could be at risk from malaria, diarrhea and growth stunting.

It also warns that climate change will continue to spur mass human migration by the poor in affected areas, requiring more social services elsewhere to address the crisis.

Additionally, the report warns that rising temperatures could drive up food prices in large parts of Africa as much as 12 percent by 2030.

Western nations have collectively pledged to boost climate related financing to $100 billion annually by 2020.  But developing countries are calling for commitments beyond 2020 in any agreement reached in the upcoming summit.