IMF Warns About the Importance of Assisting Poor Countries in Climate Change

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns in its new report about the importance of assistance from wealthy countries to poorer nations in combating climate change. The British newspaper The Guardian prepared a report based on a section of this economic organization's latest report on the future of the world in light of climate change on Thursday, October 6. According to this section of the 'World Economic Outlook' report, which will be published next month by the IMF, wealthy and developed countries must take more action to help poorer countries overcome climate and environmental changes; otherwise, they will have to bear the consequences of slower growth and increased migration. This organization, based in Washington, states: 'The increase in global temperatures will have very unequal effects on countries, with the greatest burden of adverse consequences falling on those countries that have the least financial capacity to cope.' Currently, greenhouse gas emissions are higher than ever in human history. According to a United Nations report, in 2014 alone, fifty-three billion tons of carbon dioxide entered the Earth's atmosphere, and this amount is alarmingly increasing. Scientists attribute recent storms, floods, and droughts, especially in poorer countries, as one of the results of climate change. Due to this critical situation, the UN climate change negotiations in Paris reached a significant stage in 2015, where more than 190 countries signed the first agreement to combat global warming. However, with Donald Trump's rise to power in the United States and his negative stance towards the Paris Agreement, and ultimately the announcement that the U.S. would withdraw from this agreement, there is no certainty about the future of this accord, although many countries and even some states in the U.S. have declared that they will maintain their commitment to the agreement. The long-term goal of the Paris Agreement is to prevent the Earth's temperature from rising more than 'two degrees Celsius.' To achieve this goal, countries around the world agreed to implement policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. However, it is expected that only developed countries will be able to genuinely reach this goal. In November 2015, the World Bank warned that if proper policies to combat climate change and rising sea levels are not implemented, by 2030, one hundred million more people will be added to the world's poor population due to the effects of global warming. For the United Nations' sustainable development goals to be achieved by 2030, it is necessary for poorer countries to increase their public budgets to 30% of their GDP. Meanwhile, according to the latest IMF report, this is 'impossible' for these countries. The report also warns that if there is a significant rise in sea levels due to current climate changes, the wave of migration from poorer countries to wealthier ones will increase.