£100 million funding for climate change research
06 February 2008
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 Image courtesy of Robin Hammond/Panos Pictures
Announcing
that DFID will increase its research funding on climate change to
£100 million
over the next five years, Secretary of State for International Development,
Douglas Alexander, said today that climate change, and our response to it, "will
define international development for years to come".
Speaking to the Foreign
Policy Centre, he described the challenge as an issue of global social justice,
saying, “if we fail to tackle climate change, global poverty will increase -
development will go into reverse”. He added that development - “a new kind of
low carbon development” - is the only credible response to climate change:
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Development impacts |
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By 2080, climate change could mean:
- an extra 600 million people worldwide affected by
malnutrition;
- an extra 400 million people exposed to malaria; and
- an extra 1.8 billion people living without enough water.
(Source: UN) |
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“We must not allow the climate change debate to neglect - or even prevent - the
right of developing countries to grow...Prosperity and economic progress are the
best protection for vulnerable communities. Countries with well educated people,
with good infrastructure and with the wealth to cope with climatic shocks, will
fare best.”
In his first major speech on climate change, the Secretary of State explained
that the ten-fold increase in funding will be spent on researching the impacts
of global warming on the poorest and most vulnerable people, and on helping
their communities, governments and the private sector to take action to prepare
for these impacts.
He also announced that DFID will work with interested parties to establish a
‘climate change centre’. The centre will form a network of expertise across the
world deploying the best climate change researchers, practitioners and
institutions to help developing countries understand and respond to the
physical, social and economic impacts of climate change.
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