Oxfam: 4.5 Million Children at Risk of Aid Funding Losses to Pay for Climate Change

Oxfam: 4.5 Million Children at Risk of Aid 'Raids' to Pay for Climate Change

~ People already go hungry, take children out of school or sell livestock because of climate-related problems, says agency ~

At least 4.5 million children could die and tens of millions more could miss out on schooling if rich countries "raid" existing aid funding to pay for measures to help poor nations cope with climate change, Oxfam warned today.

The aid agency believes $50bn a year (£30bn) is needed to help developing countries cope with the impacts of global warming including droughts, floods, storms and rising sea levels.

And it says the money must be provided in addition to the 0.7% of GDP developed nations have pledged as aid to improve the lives of people in some of the world's poorest countries – or efforts to tackle poverty will stall.

A report by Oxfam warns that diverting $50bn from existing aid pledges to fund climate measures would lead to the death of 4.5 million children, while 75 million fewer youngsters would be likely to go to school and 8.6 million fewer people would have access to HIV/Aids treatment.

It could prove a major setback to efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals which aim to end hunger and poverty and boost education, health, gender equality and environmental sustainability by 2015, the report warns...


for complete article:
2009-09-16
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/16/oxfam-aid-climate-change