Climate change is the defining human development issue of our generation,? says the new Human Development Report (HDR), which intends to generate discussion on the issue while highlighting the strategies to tackle it.
The report point out that increased exposure to droughts, to more intense storms, to floods and environmental stress can hold back the progress of human development, while impeding the move towards millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015.
??Droughts and floods can have long term impacts in human development because when people face droughts, they have to reduce their food intake, they have to take their children out of school,? said United Nations Development Project (UNDP) policy specialist Ricardo Fuentes Nievea.
The report states that greenhouse gas emissions could lead to problems such as food insecurity, water stress, exposure to climate disasters and negative impact on human health of heat waves and extreme weather conditions.
Maxine Olson, UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator, said $86 billion would be required for developing adaptation mechanism by 2016 to tackle climate change. She said market mechanism, such as imposition of carbon tax and air transportation tax, could be used to generate resources for this purpose.
?Although the amount seems large, it is possible to mobilise them,? she said. The report further suggests that carbon and carbon equivalent gases have to be priced in a manner that these reflect their true social cost. ?This should be the essence of the mitigation policy.?
Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the Indian government was working on it subject.
He said the Indian government is preparing a National Action Plan for climate change. The prime minister?s advisory council on climate change has also discussed the issue time and again, he said.