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January 12, 2015

Responding To: Georgetown Faculty on the Greatest Development Challenge of the Next Decade

The Challenge of Climate Change

The greatest challenge development will meet in the decade ahead comes from global climate change. Africa, the poorest continent, will be sorely affected because of worsening desertification, the loss of arable land and the migration of peoples in response to natural disasters.

Geography dictates that other regions will also face enormous difficulties. Island nations like Kiribati and the Maldives and coastal states like Bangladesh and Vietnam are already impacted by rising sea-water levels. The water-starved Middle East, with some of the world’s driest territory, will face destructive droughts and potentially water wars. 

Populous India and Southeast Asia, whose water flows from the Tibetan plateau, will be afflicted by diminished supplies due to the shrinking of Himalayan glaciers and by diversion of water by the Chinese to meet their country’s egregious deficit of clean water. With the diminishment of fresh water entire ecosystems will be altered, arable land will shrink and fisheries will plunge into decline.

The environmental challenges for development as a result of climate change are many:
·       More efficient allocation of water resource across countries and regions;
·       Innovation in the technology of water purification and desalinization;
·       Further development and prudent expansion of arid land agriculture;
·       Expansion of low-impact agricultural irrigation;
·       Effective international compacts for eco-system management and water-sharing;
·       Mitigation, remediation and compensation for the land loss of poor island and coastal state, and
·       Improved international provision for the migration of environmental refugees.

The problem is global, so the solutions must be global. There will need to be sharing of new technologies, with transfers to poorer and adversely affected nations. There will have to be far better transnational collaboration, especially on issues like migration.

The lack of visible progress on a new climate covenant is not encouraging. But perhaps progress can be made on a less than global level by neighbors within a given ecosystem or region, like the riverine systems of the Indian Subcontinent, where the problems are immediately felt and shared.

But, even regional solutions will require exceptional leadership and popular support that is often wanting. That is where international agencies like the World Bank have a special role to play in creating a culture of environmental responsibility among national leaders and educating the affected publics to the need for collaboration with their neighbors. Local activists, national governments and transnational agencies all need to be involved.  

Drew Christiansen, a Jesuit priest, is Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Global Development at Georgetown University and a senior fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.

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