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By Khalid Malik

Sunday, April 22 marks Earth Day. The theme of this year's Earth Day is climate change, one of the most pressing and complex challenges facing the world.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report just released paints a grim picture of the advance of climate change, and its potential harm to the lives of millions.

The report predicts that millions more people will be threatened by serious flooding every year by the end of this century, especially in densely populated, low-lying areas, where because of poverty they are unable to adapt to the changes. These areas already face other challenges such as tropical storms and sinking coastlines.

The complexity of dealing with climate change is seen by the divergence of impacts climate change is expected to have in different parts of the world.

While climate change brings serious risks to future development, including China, it is also expected to bring positive consequences to some regions in the north where melting ice could open up areas for human activity.

But for most people in the developing world, climate change will likely mean increased risk of drought, reduced water supplies, and even loss of life.

The changes expected from climate change are serious and require concerted international action to both lessen the impact and to adapt. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism is an important example of how the world's markets can be brought to bear on climate change.

Large improvements in energy efficiency and expanded use of renewable energy are needed in both developed and developing countries if future emissions and climate change impacts are to be mitigated.

We will also have to design new ways to deal with carbon capture through investments in forest conservation and forestation measures which both reduce the impact of climate change and conserve biodiversity.

While mitigation measures remain central, the UN also places top priority on actions to adapt to the impact of climate change in vulnerable regions of the world.

Issues of food and water supplies and disaster prevention are critical in eliminating extreme poverty, as noted in the IPCC report.

As sea levels rise, small islands are particularly vulnerable, with more flooding, storm surges, erosion and other coastal hazards.

Indeed, while the world's poorest countries bear little responsibility for the build-up of carbon and other global warming gases in the earth's atmosphere, they will bear the brunt of the social and economic consequences.

The UN believes that there is a significant risk that climate change could roll back human development in environmentally vulnerable countries, slowing down, if not reversing, the progress made by many developing countries.

As we approach the halfway mark to the 2015 target for the UN Millennium Development Goals, this is yet another powerful motivation for us to redouble our efforts for sustainable development.

In China, the government issued its first-ever National Climate Change Impact Assessment Report earlier this year, showing the serious consequences climate change poses for food, water supplies and land.

With 2006 the warmest year in China in the last 50 years, China faced historic low levels of water in the Yangtze River. Trends of glacial melting have also increased in recent times causing concern for local and national development.

China has achieved many hard-won development gains over the past decades. As the report shows, while climate change may well bring positive implications for some regions of the country, overall climate change poses serious risks for sustaining development in the decades to come. And it is the poor that will be hardest hit as they lack the ability to adapt to this uncertain future.

The impact of temperature change will be most marked on populations in the western part of the country with the most limited adaptive capacity, including communities living in areas with rainfed agriculture, drought-prone or flood-prone conditions.

With the impacts of climate change already felt, adaptation through enhanced resilience is a top priority, though in most cases adaptation has yet to be given the prominence it merits in local debates on development and poverty reduction.

Operationally, how to reach the poorest and most vulnerable communities remains a major challenge.

The UN believes that regions with sophisticated environmental management capacity can better adapt themselves to climate change. Therefore, it is critical to develop and carry out adaptation strategies and associated actions on the provincial level.

In the context of the upcoming launch of a new National Climate Change Strategy for China later this month, the family of UN agencies stands ready to provide support to ensure that such policies can be effectively translated into on-the-ground action for results.

Climate change is a matter of common concern throughout the UN system, including members of the UN system in China. Through the UN Theme Group on Energy and Environment, a UN inter-agency coordination mechanism, the UN system in China will increase our joint analysis and coordinate our actions to help China achieve its goals.

The scale of possible future impact creates livelihood risks and vulnerabilities. The nature of these risks will vary both between and within provinces.

If measures are to have real effect in coming years, there is an urgent need to develop local policies, partnerships and implementation capacities to take action.

Based on the principles in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and strong cooperation with the National Climate Change Coordination Office and partners, UN agencies in China are working closely with Chinese institutions to help provide assistance to government, business and civil society to integrate climate change adaptation policies into local development policies.

At the global level, the UN Development Program's Human Development Report will focus on how to "climate-proof" human development and reduce poverty.

The report will explore the links between climate change and human development. These links raise important questions about social justice and loss of equity between generations.

This year's report will explore ways in which climate change interacts with wider factors to increase vulnerability, such as increased poverty, widened regional inequalities, income and gender inequalities, and aggravated ecological pressures.

The report will highlight the implications for inequality. At a global level, some of these implications are self-evident.

Rich countries are far better placed to provide the infrastructure needed to reduce risk and vulnerability than poor countries. In developing countries, vulnerable populations face the double jeopardy of being at greater risk and having limited capacity to reduce risk through private markets.

The upcoming UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in December in Indonesia presents a significant opportunity for all countries and all UN agencies to come together to review this year's IPCC findings and chart the course for more aggressive and concerted actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change for the benefit of future generations.

The author is the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China.

(China Daily April 20, 2007)