Oxfam: Diverting aid for climate change mitigation threatens children

By Alex Morales Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) — Diverting overseas aid from economic development to fight global warming may threaten the lives of at least 4.5 million children in the poorest nations, the anti-poverty group Oxfam said. Pledges made by the 27-nation European Union and various donors to help the developing world adapt to higher sea levels and droughts brought on by rising temperatures must not be funded from overseas aid budgets, according to a 32-page report published today by the non-profit organization, whose roots lie in Britain’s famine relief campaign of the 1940s. Oxfam’s request followed a proposal last week by the EU’s executive arm that wealthy nations contribute as much as 50 billion euros ($73 billion) a year by 2020 for climate adaptation measures in Africa, Latin America, Asia and islands – – with some of that money possibly coming from the 0.7 percent of economic output that industrialized nations aim to contribute in development aid by 2015. “This money is desperately needed by children who are at risk from poor maternity services and poor health in childhood,” Tim Gore, EU climate change policy adviser to Oxfam, said yesterday in a telephone interview from Brussels. “Taking money from existing aid commitments to fund climate change is essentially robbing much needed development funds.” …