Oxfam warns of climate change disasters
Tuesday, 21 April 2009 16:35Hundreds of millions of people will become victims of climate change-related disasters over the next six years, according to Oxfam.
The charity is urging governments to change the way they respond to such events.
It has estimated the average number of people affected by climatic disasters will rise by 54% to 375m people a year by 2015, based on data on similar disasters since 1980.
In a new report, it warned that humanitarian aid spending and the way it was allocated was far from prepared to meet the challenge.
The report, The Right to Survive, says governments can take action to mitigate the effect of climatic disasters, citing investment by Bangladesh in cyclone protection measures which has reduced the death toll from storms.
Oxfam is also launching a new campaign urging rich countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% on 1990 levels by 2020 to tackle the source of global warming.
Oxfam analysed data from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at Louvain University in Belgium, which covered more than 6,500 climate-related disasters since 1980 and the numbers of people affected.
It defines people 'affected' by a disaster as those suffering physical injury or illness, those made homeless or who required immediate assistance.
