‘Climate change taking toll on overall development’

Global climate change threatens to undermine India's efforts to improve the well-being of its poor people, according to the Human Development Report 2007-08.

Global climate change threatens to undermine India’s efforts to improve the well-being of its poor people, according to the Human Development Report 2007-08.

Titled ‘Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world’, the report points out that while steady progress has been made to improve people’s health, education and wealth in India, a large human development backlog still exists.

“Efforts to assist the poorest people need to be scaled-up if the nation’s ambition of inclusive growth is to be realised,” Maxine Olson, the UNDP resident representative said in New

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According to the report, the impacts of climate change on poor people’s human development prospects around the world are significantly underestimated.

It warns that the world is drifting towards a ‘tipping point’ that could lock the poorest countries and their poorest citizens in a downward spiral, leaving hundreds of millions facing malnutrition, water scarcity, ecological threats and loss of livelihood.

“In India changing rainfall patterns could result in drops in agricultural productivity, directly affecting 60 per cent of the population that relies on this sector,” the report says.