Volume 1
Global climate change and sustainable development : third report of Session 2001-02 / International Development Committee.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee
- Date:
- 2002
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Global climate change and sustainable development : third report of Session 2001-02 / International Development Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![existing networks. We hope that scientific and technical cooperation will feature strongly at WSSD. DFID should work with the scientific and technical communities to build, enhance and maintain links between the scientific and technical communities in developed and developing countries on bilateral and multilateral levels. We are aware that the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) are looking into this issue and we look forward to seeing the results of their work. We would encourage both DFID and POST to work closely on this as it can only be of mutual benefit. DFID’s policy 115. Any efforts to reduce poverty and empower the vulnerable are likely to increase resilience to climate change.*'* Both will contribute to better adaptive capacity and reduced vulnerability as will improvement in the management of natural resources.*’* Saleemul Hug recommended that DFID took a livelihoods approach to developing policies and made sure that the policies were both pro-environment and pro-poor.”’* DFID’s work on sustainable livelihoods, its work on mainstreaming environmental issues, and its efforts to build international constituencies for development are having some effect. However, the evidence DFID gave to the Committee made clear that DFID did not have a climate change policy per se. Their responses to our questions referred to the general principles of development (country-driven, sustainable livelihoods, mainstreaming environment) and offered few specific programmes related to climate change. Richard Manning explained that DFID had selected eleven countries’’® where it would work to incorporate environmental issues, sustainable development and climate change into country policies.*!” We look forward to seeing how the work in these countries, to incorporate environmental issues, sustainable development and climate change, develops. Adrian Davis, DFID, - thought that adaptation would be main focus of DFID’s climate change activities. We agree that adaptation should be DFID’s main priority in terms of action on climate change. DFID should consider developing a specific policy on adaptation. This could promote adaptation, and ensure that adverse effects are moderated and benefits realised while maladaptation is avoided. 116. In our view, DFID does not need to change its policies radically but a greater emphasis should be placed on mainstreaming climate considerations through other policies. We see the development of indicators and a system for climate impact assessment as crucial in monitoring climate considerations. Richard Manning reassured us when he told us that DFID did not see climate change as irrelevant to the poverty agenda and recognised that over time they were closely linked.*'* But DFID’s own evidence to the Committee said that “climate change, while important, is only one factor in the set of environmental opportunities and risks”.*'? We remain concerned that DFID sees climate change as a subset of environmental issues rather than the most urgent.*”’ If climate change is taken to be just another environmental problem it will be lost among all the short-term considerations. 117. DFID must build its own capacity on climate change if it is to target the most vulnerable effectively and give the best advice on policy integration.*! We recognise that DFID has been active in international negotiations including the Conference of Parties (CoP) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). Richard 313 Ev 40 », Report of IPCC Working Group I: Summary for Policy Makers, 2001 nee” 72 [para 19] a7 ecnya, India, China, Russia, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Nepal and Ghana. See Q7 3189167 31°F 7 [para 34] 3209163 S21Ey 73 [para 26]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32221356_0001_0064.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
