Environmental catastrophe

Environmental deterioration, the great threat to food supply: UNDP report

Commodity Online

WASHINGTON (Commodity Online): 

Environmental deterioration could create drought situation in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia creating food shortage and raising food prices by 50% in future, according to United Nations Human Development Report 2011 released by UN Development Programme.

The authors of the report forecast that unchecked environmental deterioration—from drought in sub-Saharan Africa to rising sea levels that could swamp low-lying countries like Bangladesh—could cause food prices  to soar by up to 50 percent and reverse efforts to expand water, sanitation and energy access to billions of people, notably in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

By 2050, in an "environmental challenge" scenario factoring in the effects of global warming on food production and pollution, the average HDI would be 12 percent lower in

South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa than would otherwise be the case, the Report estimates. Under an even more adverse "environmental disaster" situation—with vast deforestation, dramatic biodiversity declines and increasingly extreme weather—the global HDI would fall 15 percent below the baseline projection for 2050, with the deepest losses in the poorestregions.

Environmental deterioration could undermine decades of efforts to expand water, sanitation and Electricity access to the world’s poorest communities: "These absolute deprivations, important in themselves, are major violations of human rights," the authors say

Despite the human development progress of recent years, income distribution has worsened, grave gender imbalances still persist, and accelerating environmental destruction puts a "double burden of deprivation" on the poorest households and communities, the Report says. Half of all malnutrition worldwide is attributable to environmental factors, such as water pollution and drought-driven scarcity, perpetuating a vicious cycle of impoverishment and ecological damage, the Report notes.

High living standards need not be carbon-fueled and follow the examples of the richest countries, says the Report,presenting evidence that while CO2 emissions have been closely linked with national income growth in recent decades, fossil-fuel consumption does not correspond with other key measures of human development, such as life expectancy and education. In fact, many advanced industrial nations are reducing their carbon footprints while maintaining growth.

"Growth driven by fossil fuel consumption is not a prerequisite for a better life in broader human development terms," Helen Clark said. "Investments that improve equity—in access, for example, to renewable energy, water and sanitation, and reproductive healthcare—could advance both sustainability and human development