As the economies of nations such as Brazil, China and India are catching up with these of their wealthy competitors, the impact of climate change might present a huge set back in these nations’ development.
A UN report states that thanks to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), we now observe how growing economies in developing countries help people raise from poverty into a new middle class.
The combined economies of Brazil, China and India are on their way to overtake the aggregate production of countries like the U.S, Canada, Germany, France, Britain and Italy. The report, which was presented in Mexico City earlier this week, indicates that this is likely to happen in 2020. This is strengthened by the fact that leading industrial nations have ageing population and face many environmental pressures.
The status of many citizens of these developing nations has changed very fast. In less than 20 years, China and India have doubled their economic output per capita. Statistics show that the poverty rate has dropped from 43 to 22 percent between 1990 and 2008.
In addition, only in China alone, half a million people have raised above the poverty line, while the number of people living on less than $1.25 per day has dropped in half.
The problem that the U.N report outlines, however, is the fact that these countries do not have a clear action plan against climate change. It is projected that environmental disasters caused by climate change, might push billions of people right back down to extreme poverty by 2050.
