Global environmental problems

Trees and wild plants provide impoverished farmers in Kenya and Tanzania an alternative subsistence base in times of drought. These kind of local interactions tend to be ignored when climate changes are discussed at the global level. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released a report that claims that the world’s poorest populations will be the hardest hit by climate changes (IPCC 2001). The relationship between poverty and climate impacts has been known for some time – and poverty has often been connected to a lack of capacity to adapt to climatic changes (Adger & Kelly 2000). Moreover, poor people often live in risk-filled environments and subsist on natural resources that are negatively affected by climate changes (Kates & Haarman 1992, Blaikie et al. 1994). The IPCC’s new emphasis on the poverty issue represents a fundamental shift in focus from climate impacts as a purely natural scientific phenomenon to climate impacts as a development issue. This shift has important consequences for the design and implementation of climate measures. Climate impacts and development issues Traditionally, climate has been seen as a global environmental issue, while poverty has bee