New study says poor countries are very ill equipped to deal with climate change

Dec 13, 2013 02:11 GMT  ·  By
New report says poor countries are very ill equipped to deal with climate change
   New report says poor countries are very ill equipped to deal with climate change

A new report issued by researchers working with the University of Notre Dame brings some good news and some bad news for people living in developing countries.

The good news is that, with a little bit of help, they can reach the level of climate change readiness that rich nations across the world already enjoy.

The bad news is that, all things considered, it will take them about one century to do so. So no, the good news is not exactly good either.

The report in question evaluates over 175 countries and focuses on issues such as their vulnerability to climate change, global warming and the extreme weather manifestations that these phenomena will foster, i.e. severe droughts, devastating storms and natural disasters, Sustainable Industries says.

“We knew that there were disparities between the richest and poorest countries when it comes to climate change adaptation and readiness,” researcher Jessica Hellmann commented on these findings.

“But we did not realize that it would take more than 100 years for the poorest countries just to reach the readiness levels that the richest countries have already attained,” she added.

The specialists who worked on the report say that, according to their investigations, developed countries are not exactly climate change and global warming-proof either.

On the contrary, it appears that, although they are making efforts to up their resilience to said natural phenomena and the extreme weather manifestations that come with them, there is still room for improvement.

“These data are sobering because they cast light on just how unprepared some of the most vulnerable nations really are. But they also show that the most developed countries are not doing enough either, which raises serious public policy questions no matter how well-developed a national economy may be,” Jessica Hellmann said in a statement.

The 2013 University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index was released this December 12, and the folks behind it hope that their findings will help world leaders establish global, regional and national priorities as far as boosting climate change readiness is concerned.