Presented atthe brainstorming meeting on the substantive preparations for

UNLDC IVOrganised by the UNOHRLLS

New York, USA: 15 July 2010

byFahmida Khatun, PhD

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh

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Environmental Vulnerability of Environmental Vulnerability of the LDCsthe LDCs

Background

Severity of the problem

Diversity of the problem

Major milestones

Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

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• LDCs face multiple environmental problems, such as:• air and water pollution, soil degradation, desertification, deforestation, depletion of fish resources, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem, urbanization and congestion

•. Some of the LDCs are also vulnerable to the risk of climate change, including possible sea level rise, which would severely impact the lives and livelihoods of a large number of people;

• LDCs feature prominently in terms of lowest Environmental Performance Indicator (EPI);

• Environmental problems, particularly climate change poses a significant threat to the achievement of the MDG of the United Nations which sets environmental sustainability (Goal no. 7) as one of the eight MDGs to achieve global economic and social well-being;.

I. Background

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II. Severity of the problem: Increased vulnerability

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Drought Flood StormCoastal 1m(Sea Level Rise)

Agriculture

Malawi BangladeshPhilippines All Low Lying Island States Sudan

Ethiopia ChinaBangladesh Vietnam Senegal

Zimbabwe IndiaMadagascar Egypt Zimbabwe

India Cambodia Vietnam Tunisia MaliMozambique

Mozambique Moldova Indonesia Zambia

Niger Lao PDR Mongolia Mauritania MoroccoMauritania Pakistan Haiti China NigerEritrea Sri Lanka Samoa Mexico IndiaSudan Thailand Tonga Myanmar MalawiChad Vietnam China Bangladesh AlgeriaKenya Benin Honduras Senegal EthiopiaIran Rwanda Fiji Libya Pakistan

II. Severity of the problem: Climate change hit list

Table 1: Twelve countries on climate change hit list

Source: World Bank 2009.

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• South Asian cities have the highest levels of air pollution globally, with extremely high levels of particulate matters PM10

• Air pollution is more an Asian problem than an African one, due to mainly the difference in growth and industrialization between Asia and African LDCs  

III. Diversity of the problem: Air pollution

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• LDCs also face various types of water-related environmental problems including water pollution, saline water intrusion, and increased occurrence of floods;

• African LDCs have the lowest per capita fresh water availability in the world;

• Arsenic has been a major source of ground-water contamination in countries such as Bangladesh

• Most of the Asian and African LDCs either have lesser availability of water or do not have the technological and economic capabilities to use water resources efficiently

III. Diversity of the problem: Water pollution

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•About 46% of LDCs in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia suffer the worst from desertification;

• Land degradation in African LDCs such as Burkina Faso, Burundi, Eritrea, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Uganda is a serious threat for the livelihoods of their farmers;

• In Burundi the share of degraded and severely degraded land comprises of 56.66 and 53.78 percent respectively, of total land. In Rwanda the share of such land is 56.49 and 51.48 percent respectively; 

• Among the Asian LDCs, Afghanistan, Nepal and Yemen are in the worst situations in terms of land degradation, where severely degraded land ranges from 13.29 percent to 16.6 percent of total land area.

III. Diversity of the problem: Land degradation

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Solid waste management* In most of the mega cities of LDCs, such as Addis Ababa, Dhaka, Kampala, Khartoum and Niamey, inhabitants suffer water- and air-borne diseases due to poorly managed wastes and sewages. Deforestation and loss of biodiversity• Most Asian LDCs either have little forest cover or are on the verge of losing their natural forests;

* With a few exceptions such as Bhutan in Asia and Gambia, Lesotho, Rwanda in Africa, LDCs lost considerable area of their forestland from 1990 to 2005.  

III. Diversity of the problem: Solid waste and deforestation

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• Some of the sectors that are particularly vulnerable to climate change include water, agriculture, human health, tourism, fisheries, etc;

• Livelihood activities of millions of people in Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Sub-Saharan Africa will suffer;

• Agriculture in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa will be severely affected with a threat to food security;

• Millions will become ‘climate refugees’ in Bangladesh, Maldives and many smaller Asian and African islands.

III. Diversity of the problem: Climate change

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* In 2007 a total of 14 African countries including Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Mali, Burkina Faso suffered from unprecedented floods;

• In 2000 heavy flood in Mozambique due to heavy rain and cyclone killed thousands and the country incurred millions worth of loss;

• Bangladesh was badly affected by flood in 2007, 1998 and 1988, besides regular seasonal floods and by cyclone in 2007;

• Ethiopia experienced one of the worst floods in its history in the year 2006.

III. Diversity of the problem: Natural disaster

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III. Diversity of the problem: Examples

Country Environmental ProblemsBangladesh Widespread contamination of surface water; effects of climate

change including sea level rise, increased flooding, intensified storms, earthquake

Cambodia

Deforestation leading to erosion and flooding. Water pollution caused by dumping of solid and industrial wastes, use of pesticides

Haiti Deforestation combined with perennial overuse of steep hillsides to produce severe slope instability and catastrophic landslides during heavy rains; hurricane

Malawi Land degradation, soil erosionMaldives Sea level rise and storms due to climate changeMyanmar Flood, cyclone

NepalLoss of forest, forest degradation, soil erosion, air pollution, water pollution and unmanaged solid waste

Niger Water contamination by heavy metal and oil spills Sierra Leone Deforestation

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UNFCCC

For the first time the Kyoto Protocol introduced binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions in 37 industrialised countries from 2008 to 2012;

Several member countries of the UNFCCC have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol and do not acknowledge its requirements regarding emissions;

Bali Action Plan (2007),Copenhagen (2009) – parties agreed for enhanced cooperation on adaptation, financial and technological support;

OthersWTOBrussels Plan of Action

IV. Major milestones

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Public policies at the domestic level * Several governments have formulated the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) to address impact of climate change;

* However, formulation of policies is not the end but only a step towards dealing with the problem;

* Effective implementation of plans requires careful operational strategies along with provisions for enough resources.

V. Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

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Global initiatives

Support is required for:

• mitigation of increased greenhouse gas emissions; • adaptation to climate change; • technology transfers and development, and• financing

* Given the divergence of environmental concerns, priorities for LDCs as regards addressing the environment will be different across various regions of LDCs.

V. Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

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Adaptation versus mitigation• LDCs contribute negligibly to the global GHG emission

• Major focus is to devise adaptation policies and measures. Measures are required in the following areas:

• Agriculture, forestry and fisheries ; Water supplies; Extreme events; Capacity building including research; Coastal zones; Infrastructure; Human health; National policies

* Although adaptation needs are clearly recognised under the UNFCCC, a number of economic, technical, policy, regulatory, and institutional barriers still persist regarding the transfer of technology and adaptability of these countries.

V. Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

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Technology transfer• Transfer and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies is a key element of any effective international response to the global climate change challenge and one of the pillars of the UNFCCC ;

• In case of technology transfer the main issues on the table are technology financing, research and development, including intellectual property rights (IPRs) and institutional arrangements;

• Under Article 66.2 in TRIPS, developed countries are required to provide incentives to their national enterprises to promote transfer of technologies to LDCs;

• Developed countries are not effectively implementing this article and as such, are not fulfilling their obligations under the WTO.

V. Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

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Financing climate change

• Adaptation to climate change will bring with it additional costs for both public and private sectors;

• Emphasis is on new and additional fund for adaptation, which compliments rather than compete with ODA

• Where it will come from: • direct contributions from developed country governments; • market mechanisms,;• international initiatives –A4T under the WTO

• Need for funds is in the order of hundreds of billions of USD per year;

• However, the need for adaptation funds is overshadowed by other funds

V. Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

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V. Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

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V. Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

278.82

28.98

262.15

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Estimates of w hat is needed w hat is available or pledged

UNFCCC estimate-lowend

G77 mand Chinaproposal-low end-2007GDP

Available or pledged-GEF-UNFCCC+non-UNFCCC Channels

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Financing climate change

The issues is not only about how to raise the money, but also about how finance is channeled and governed; Public financing is generally channeled through large centralised funds while market-based financing is typically delivered through myriad individually developed projects ;

Large funds have issues with governance, conditionality, efficiency, and direct access, while market mechanisms have issues of distribution, sustainability, effectiveness, and unintended consequences; All funds have a limited time horizon, up to 2020 .

V. Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

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Target based measures

•BPoA did not have any target based approach towards reducing environmental vulnerability;

• Measurable targets are needed for both international and domestic levels ;

* Parallel initiatives have to be monitored closely in terms of meeting commitments and deliverables.

V. Reducing environmental vulnerability: what needs to be done?

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Thank You