37 3 Climate Change - Biodiversity and Livelihood Impacts

Document begins: 37 3 Climate Change ­ Biodiversity and Livelihood Impacts Hannah Reid, IIED1 Climate change will put international action to eradicate poverty and achieve the MDGs at risk. Responding to this risk is an opportunity to move away from the science and towards action to reduce poor people's vulnerability to the climate.2 1. INTRODUCTION The debate about climate change has reached a stage where most scientists accept that, whatever happens to future greenhouse gas emissions, we are now locked into a future characterised by significant human-induced changes to our climate. There are two types of response to these changes: the first is to try and reduce the extent to which our climate is altered. This is known as climate change mitigation. The second is to learn to live with the inevitable changes. This is known as adaptation to climate change. 1. The author would like to thank Saliem Fakir and Saleemul Huq for their advice and reviews. 2. Hilary Benn, UK Secretary of State for International Development, March 2004. 38 Biodiversity is inextricably linked to climate ­ changes in climate affect biodiversity and changes to natural ecosystems affect climate.3 This chapter considers the linkages between climate change (mitigation and ...