One third of the world's population has already been affected by weather-related disasters and this is set to soar because of climate change unless urgent international action is taken, said a report by Tearfund, one of the UK's leading relief and development agencies
Tearfund says governments must commit at least 50 billion U.S. dollars every year to helping the world's most vulnerable communities prepare to save their own lives and livelihoods.
The report called Climate of Disaster published this week in Bali, a resort island of Indonesia, reveals that in the last 10 years, weather-related disasters have killed over 443,000 people, affected 2.5 billion people and cost an estimated 600 billion U.S. dollars in economic losses.
With climate change increasing the number and intensity of extreme events such as floods and droughts, more and more people are becoming vulnerable to a range of environmental disasters.
Without urgent action, this trend is set to rise, leading to unprecedented levels of suffering and deaths. Poor people will be hit hardest - they are the least able to cope with, and live in the most vulnerable areas of the world.
Speaking at the UN Climate Change conference in Bali, Andy Atkins, Tearfund's Advocacy Director said "It is time for the international community to take stronger action to support vulnerable communities' efforts to reduce the risk of disaster."
"Airlifting stranded people from floodwaters and sending food packages to those affected by drought can no longer be our sole response to weather-related disasters. As a global community we have a moral responsibility to invest our aid money upfront in helping the planet's poorest people prepare for predictable disaster," Atkins said.
"If we do not, then many thousands of lives will be needlessly lost and billions of pounds of aid money will not be used to best effect," he said.
A two-week UN climate change conference kicked off here on Monday. The conference is tasked with setting up a roadmap for negotiations on a new climate deal before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Source: Xinhua
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