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Helping poorer countries
Poorer countries will be among the earliest victims of climate change and lack the resources to effectively adapt their societies to cope. People in developing countries have already suffered the effects of melting glaciers, flooding, rising sea levels, drought, crop failure, loss of farmland, increased disease, and the destruction caused by natural disasters.
The effects of climate change threaten to roll back the lasting progress made on reducing poverty. It will hamper international efforts, for example, towards achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals. A temperature rise of 2-3.5 degrees C, for example, would reduce the income of farmers in India by between 9% and 25%, according to the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
Vulnerable countries have an important voice in the international debate around how to tackle climate change and need to press the richer and more developed countries to be ambitious in their action. They can press richer countries to decarbonise their economies, and help to focus the minds of leaders of the biggest economies. The supply of raw materials from poorer to richer countries, for example, will be affected by climate change.
The Foreign Office and the Department for International Development are working with vulnerable and developing countries to help them cope with the challenges of climate change, and to minimise the risks to their future development. The UK has created a Climate Security Envoy for Vulnerable Countries who is building partnerships in vulnerable regions, increasing the voices of countries in negotiations and improving coordination using the latest scientific evidence.
Find out how climate change is affecting Asia and Africa
June 2009
Representatives from over 30 countries joined experts to discuss the impact of climate change on countries that are particularly vulnerable because of geography or economic circumstances
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