'Climate change to increase poverty across world'

By Gokhan Zobar

EDIRNE, Turkey (AA) - The negative effects of climate change will exacerbate poverty across the globe, a Turkish academic said Friday.

Nesrin Algan, a professor at the faculty of political sciences at Ankara University, in her online presentation on Climate Justice, said that the problems caused by climate change affect the whole world socially and economically.

Noting that greenhouse gas emissions doubled between 1990 and 2015, Algan said: "One person in the richest 1% of the world causes 175 times more carbon emissions than 1 person in the poorest 10%."

"Weather events related to climate change cause great damage to the economy. In the US alone, 241 extreme weather events since 1980 caused $1.6 trillion in damage," she added.

Algan said climate change will deepen existing poverty and inequality, while the poorest countries will be affected the most.

"Failure of governments to stick to the Paris Climate Agreement will increase the economic impact of climate change. Due to climate change, people will be deprived of basic human rights such as life, nutrition, shelter and water."

She emphasized that between 2030 and 2050, some 100 million people per year will be negatively affected by climate change.

By 2030, 120 million people worldwide will be impoverished and 250,000 people will die from diseases, Algan said.

*Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev from Ankara