The level of climate-adaptation spending needed in developing countries will be $140bn-300bn a year by 2030, the UN Environmental Programme estimates
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThen there are the sandstorms. These have been getting more frequent and intense, thanks in large part to the drying up of marshlands to the north of Basra where the Tigris and Euphrates merge. No fewer than eight storms struck the city between mid-April and mid-May, causing or aggravating all manner of respiratory problems.
To its credit, the government is developing a “National Adaptation Plan” , an undertaking which is part of the’s Cancun Adaptation Framework, agreed in 2010. These plans aim to identify which people, infrastructure and industries are most vulnerable and work out ways for governments and foreign donors to help them. Over four-fifths of developing countries have begun work on such a plan. But only a third or so have completed one.
Kuwaiti academics and bureaucrats study the effects of climate change in elaborate detail. Some staff at the Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research are examining the relationship between the intensifying heat and mortality from various diseases. Others are looking at infrastructure. The institute’s Ali al-Dousari monitors the costs of removing sand that builds up on roads and at oil facilities and military bases.
Such calamities also prompt wealthy governments to plan more carefully for natural disasters, reducing the damage the next time around. Big businesses, meanwhile, are used to dealing with uncertainty: potential changes in the climate are simply another variable for which they must plan. This does not mean planned adaptation in the rich world is unnecessary, or that it is a matter of course, or that it can cope with everything a changed climate throws at it. It does mean that it is a lot easier.
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