Save the poor from climate change

Similarly, economic growth and technological development allow us to overcome events like droughts, floods and storms. In fact, deaths from extreme weather events have fallen 95 percent since the 1920s. Hurricane Ida tragically killed 192 people in El Salvador recently, but that number pales in comparison to hurricanes that used to kill thousands just decades ago. Extreme weather events disproportionately affect the poor because they do not have robust dwellings, early-warning systems, flood defenses or good roads.

To build that infrastructure, the poor need, once again, economic growth. This will not come from increased foreign aid or subsidies for “clean” technologies — all too often, these have simply enriched ruling cliques and interest groups, allowing little development.

As the climate changes, governments need to accept the reality that growth is good. They need to trust their people with economic freedoms, such as the right to own property. Growth would enable people to invest in robust buildings and get technologies that would drastically reduce their exposure to climate extremes.

They must also get rid of the subsidies, taxes and regulations that undermine economic growth and encourage waste. It is not climate change but government policies, such as prohibitive tariffs on medicine, subsidies to farmers for water-use and restrictions on food exports that cause poverty and poor health.

Drastic reduction of carbon emissions will stifle the very economic growth that is needed to reduce poverty and vulnerability. Governments must stop blaming their mistakes on climate change: They must empower people to fight poverty today and whatever the climate brings tomorrow.

Caroline Boin is a Project Director at International Policy Network, London, an independent think-tank working on economic development.

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