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Climate Change

4. Support to the developing world

The regions likely to be most strongly affected by climate change are:

• the Arctic (high rates of warming are projected which will impact on natural systems and human communities. Average temperatures in the Arctic have increased at almost twice the global average rate in the past 100 years);
• Africa (because of projected climate change impacts such as drought, water stress, reductions in crop yields and sea-level rise and Africa’s low capacity for adapting to climate change);
• Asian and African megadeltas (due to their large populations and high exposure to sea-level rise, storm surges and river flooding);
• small islands (where people and infrastructure are very exposed to projected climate change impacts such as sea-level rise, coastal erosion and reduction of fresh water resources).

Reducing and reversing climate change forms an integral part of the EU’s support to developing countries in the fight against poverty, the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals and the promotion of sustainable development.

The EU is actively pursuing this objective, both multilaterally through the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and its Clean Development Mechanism as well as through regional and bilateral cooperation with partner countries in all developing country regions.

Increasing food insecurity, water scarcity, spread of diseases to new areas, damage from floods and forced migration due to desertification are some of the likely effects on developing countries.

Poorer countries with economies dependent on natural resource-related sectors such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries will be disproportionately affected. But even developing countries with more diversified economies are vulnerable since lack of financial resources, adequate technology and effective institutions limits their capacity to adapt to the consequences of climate change.

The EU believes that in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, industrialised countries must take the lead in cutting emissions as they are responsible for the bulk of the problem and have the greatest resources to tackle it.

But climate change cannot be controlled without efforts by developing countries, and notably the emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil. The combined emissions of developing countries are projected to overtake those of the industrialised world by around 2020. The EU is urging developing countries to start to reduce their emissions as soon as possible and prepare for absolute reductions from 2020 onwards.

The EU recognises that the most effective way to promote adaptation to and mitigation of climate change is to ‘mainstream’ these objectives into strategies for poverty reduction and/or sustainable development. It also attaches great importance to ensuring that these strategies are owned and driven by developing countries themselves.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment (called Annex 1 countries) to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. A crucial feature of an approved CDM carbon project is that it has established that the planned reductions would not occur without the additional incentive provided by emission reductions credits, a concept known as "additionality".

The CDM allows net global greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced at a much lower global cost by financing emissions reduction projects in developing countries where costs are lower than in industrialised nations.

For further information on the various bilateral initiatives, partnerships and dialogues with third country partners check the Working with developing countries to tackle climate change and: - CHINA - INDIA
- SOUTH AFRICA