Markey: New Report-Poor Will Suffer Earliest, Most from Global Warming

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Select Committee, 202-225-4081

Markey: New Report—Poor Will Suffer Earliest, Most from Global Warming

WASHINGTON (November 27, 2007) – A new report on the impacts of global warming says the world’s poor will suffer the earliest and most damaging effects of a heating, changing world, and that rich nations like the United States account for the overwhelming bulk of the emissions that will inflict this pain on the world’s poor. The report by the United Nations Development program highlights the economic and moral imperative for rich nations like the United States—which currently contributes one quarter of the world’s heat-trapping emissions—to significantly cut global warming emissions pollution.

The report details how increased exposure to drought, more intense storms, floods and other environmental stresses are holding back the world’s poor from building better lives. The report says developed countries like the United States must enact a cap-and-trade program and put a price on carbon pollution in order to cut emissions.

Katrina proved that developing countries are not the only ones susceptible to climate-related disasters. But lacking the resources to prepare, recover, and adapt to climate disasters has meant developing countries are hit harder. Some 262 million people were affected by climate disasters annually from 2000 to 2004, over 98 percent of them in the developing world.

Below is the statement of Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming:

“For too long, opponents of global warming action have claimed that fighting global warming would hurt the development of poor nations. Now we can clearly see they not only have it wrong, they have it backwards—fighting global warming will help the world’s poor, and staying on our current dirty energy path will only hurt them more.

“This report should give all leaders in Washington the moral imperative to back global warming action in Congress and in the White House. We must pass the energy bill pending before congress and then a cap-auction-and-trade bill to get America moving towards the goal of 80 percent cuts in heat-trapping emissions by the middle of this century.

“From Katrina to Western wildfires to drought across the United States, we are no stranger to climate-fueled disasters here at home. We are also a country with great resources, and must accept that these disasters in the developing world hit them much harder.

“The good news is the report recognizes solutions to global warming as opportunities for developing countries to not just protect themselves against future global warming, but to prosper and grow.

“Developing countries must do their part and take advantage of these opportunities, but the United States has spent centuries polluting the skies with red, white and blue CO2. It is time for America to accept her moral responsibility and act now to cut emissions.”

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