- Title
- Climate risk management in Ecuador
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- Abstract
- "Climate change has the potential to exacerbate con ict, cause humanitarian crises, displace people, destroy livelihoods and set- back development and the ght against poverty for millions of people across the globe.
For example, it is estimated that over 20 million people in the Mekong Delta and 20 million in Bangladesh could be forced to move as their homes are a ected by saltwater incursion from rising sea levels. Entire populations of some low lying island states, such as Nauru or the Maldives may have to be relocated. In countries like Honduras, where more than half the population relies on agriculture, climate induced risks, such as hurricane Mitch in 1998, which caused over USD 2 billion in agricultural losses, will continue to pose a staggering potential for damage. Similarly, climate risk assessments in Nicaragua show that changes in rainfall patterns, oods and drought could put human health at risk by increasing the prevalence of respiratory and water borne diseases and malnutrition.
Long-term incremental changes will mean that people everywhere must learn to adapt to weather or rainfall patterns changing, or to shifts in ecosystems that humans depend upon for food. Perhaps more worrying however, is that climate variability and change will also bring unpredictable weather patterns that will in turn result in more extreme weather events. Heat waves, droughts, oods, and violent storms could be much more common in the decades to come. Climate change is “loading the dice” and making extreme weather events more likely. These disasters will undermine the sustainability of development and render some practices, such as certain types of agriculture, unsustainable; some places uninhabitable; and some lives unliveable.
As climate change creates new risks, better analysis is needed to understand a new level of uncertainty. In order to plan for disasters, we need to understand how climate change will impact on economies, livelihoods and development. We need to understand how likely changes in temperature, precipitation, as well as the frequency and magnitude of future extreme weather will a ect any sector, including agriculture, water-use, human and animal health and the biodiversity of wetlands.
This report is a product of the Climate Risk Management – Technical Assistance Support Project, which is supported by UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, and Bureau for Development Policy. This is one in a series of reports that examine high-risk countries and focus on a speci c socio-economic sector in each country. The series illustrates how people in di erent communities and across a range of socio-economic sectors may have to make adaptations to the way they generate income and cultivate livelihoods in the face of a changing climate. These reports present an evidence base for understanding how climatic risks are likely to unfold. They will help governments, development agencies and even the communities themselves to identify underlying risks, including inappropriately designed policies and plans and crucial capacity gaps."
- Publication Date
- Jan. 1, 2013, 6 p.m.
- Category
- Climatology Meteorology Atmosphere
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processes and phenomena of the atmosphere. Examples: cloud cover, weather, climate, atmospheric conditions, climate change, precipitation
- Regions
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Ecuador
- Responsible
- andy
- More info
- -
- Language
- English
- Supplemental Information
- coastal_flood, strong_wind, drought, urban_flood, extreme_heat, wildfire, landslide
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