Study: Climate Change Economic Disaster for Poorest Countries
The Gross National Product of the 65 most vulnerable countries in the world will be on average 20 percent lower in 2050 than without climate change if the earth warms 2.9 degrees.
By the year 2100, the economies of those countries will be 64 percent smaller than without climate change, according to a report published Monday at the climate summit in Glasgow.
Even if the global temperature remains limited to 1.5 degrees, which would be in line with the ambitions of the Paris climate agreement, the 65 vulnerable countries will still do 13 percent less well economically in 2050 and 33 percent worse by the end of this century. These are the least developed countries globally and small island states that are particularly hard hit by rising sea levels and an increase in storms.
The study, commissioned by the Christian Aid organization, shows that more than a third of all countries in the world urgently need help to build sufficient resilience to climate change. Only then will they be able to cope economically with future periods of heat, drought, floods and storms, which will be intensified and deadly by global warming.
Eight of the ten worst-affected countries in the study are in Africa, two in South America. The country facing the worst blow to the Gross National Product is Sudan.