4.5M kids may die without aid funds

A NONGOVERNMENT aid agency warned that at least 4.5 million children could die unless world leaders deliver more funds to help developing countries, like the Philippines, fight the growing impact of climate change.

Jeremy Hobbs, chief executive officer of Oxfam International, said, “Funds must be increased—not diverted—to help poor countries adapt to climate change and this cannot be seen as a two for one deal by politicians. Rich countries must not steal money from poor hospitals and schools in order to pay their climate debt to the developing world.”

In a report entitled “Beyond Aid,” Oxfam Internationals also warned that at least 75 million fewer children were likely to attend school and 8.6 million fewer people would have access to HIV/AIDS treatment if existing aid is diverted to help poor countries tackle climate change.

The warnings come as world leaders prepare to join US President Barack Obama, who will give his first United Nations address on climate change at the September 22 Climate Summit in New York City. The meeting will be followed by the G-20 Summit on September 24, where climate finance will be high on the agenda.

“World leaders must show they are not content to stand by and watch recent successes in combating poverty, such as children attending school, mothers surviving child birth and the sick receiving life saving drugs, reversed,” Hobbs said.

Report’s message

Oxfam Philippines spokesman Kalayaan Pulido-Constantino said the report’s message is that “failing to provide funds to help developing countries carry the additional burden of climate change adaptation will put at risk and even reverse whatever gains have been achieved by past and ongoing official development initiatives.”

“Additional funds for climate change adaptation will go a long way [toward] protecting the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors,” Constantino added.

“We also hope that the availability of such funds will jumpstart efforts to rescue these sectors from the conditions of neglect and underdevelopment under which they, and the vast majority of the poor in climate change-vulnerable countries, such as the Philippines, have been wallowing for decades now,” she said.

Constantino added that giving more money for climate change adaptation programs in vulnerable countries would ultimately benefit everyone.

“Putting the higher mitigation-lesser adaptation cost proposition another way, the more developed countries give, the greater the protection for their sunk-in investments [in terms of foreign direct investments and loan exposures],” she explained. “If heeded, the benefit for countries such as the Philippines is that they will not only be able to cope with climate change, they can even profit from it. And the first sectors that would benefit would be the sectors now most vulnerable to climate change, which shall be the recipient of fund flows for adaptation and for overall economic development.” –Ira Karen Apanay, Senior Reporter, Manila Times