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	Failure to adapt to climate impacts will increase inequality by Reuters, Global Commission on Adaptation, agencies   Sep. 2019 (Global Commission on Adaptation)   As the planet heats up, governments and businesses must radically rethink how they make decisions in key economic areas such as agriculture and infrastructure, said a flagship report aimed at pushing climate adaptation measures up the political agenda.   "If we do not act now, climate change will super-charge the global gap between the haves and the have-nots," said Ban Ki-moon, who co-chairs the Global Commission on Adaptation.   Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban said there were many opportunities to avoid losses caused by disasters and build economies that can better withstand wild weather like powerful Hurricane Dorian, which devastated the Bahamas this month. But far larger scale commitments from political leaders are needed Mr. Ban said.   Investing $1.8 trillion globally in early warning systems, more robust infrastructure, improved crop production, mangrove protection and resilient water resources between 2020 to 2030 could generate $7.1 trillion in net benefits, the report said. That amounts to an average of about $4 for every $1 spent.   "Failing to seize the economic benefits of climate adaptation with high-return investments would undermine trillions of dollars in potential growth and prosperity," it added.   Without adaptation, climate change could cut agricultural yields by up to 30 percent by 2050, hitting the world's 500 million small farms the hardest.   And it could force hundreds of millions of people in coastal cities from their homes, while pushing at least 100 million people into poverty in developing countries by 2030, the report warns.   Yet despite the cost of not acting and the potentially "huge" returns from doing so, climate risks were still not being factored adequately into decision-making, said Andrew Steer, a commissioner and head of the World Resources Institute.   Poor people, in particular, should be targeted with help to adapt to climate change, as they are often the most harshly affected by disasters but "do not have a voice", said Steer.   Most funding for adaptation "never gets close to communities", he added, urging a radical overhaul of how that money is provided so it reaches those who need it faster.   The report outlined actions that could enable key economic systems affected by climate change - from food production and water supplies to the natural environment and cities - to function better and provide for a growing global population.   Former U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said a common excuse for not investing in adaptation was that it did not purportedly generate a direct revenue stream. But instead, it should be viewed like good public health - as a way of keeping economies safe and allowing them to grow. "The main message of this report is either we delay and pay, or we plan and prosper," she told journalists.   http://gca.org/global-commission-on-adaptation/report   Sep. 2019   The current worldwide sustainable development model is threatening to reverse years of progress, if strategies don't drastically change, an independent group of scientists has concluded in a major new report launched on Wednesday.   The UN report will be at the centre of discussions during the UN summit on the SDGs later this month.   Worsening inequalities and potentially irreversible damage to the natural environment on which we all depend, demands concerted action, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), urged in a statement on the report findings, compiled by a team of 15 UN-appointed experts.   'Achieving human well-being and eradicating poverty for all of the Earth's peopleexpected to number 8.5 billion by 2030 is still possible', they highlighted, 'but only if there is a fundamental and urgent change in the relationship between people and nature'.   The report, 'The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development', points to understanding the relationships between individual SDGs and the systems that define society today to devise a plan to ameliorate global instability.   At the request of countries to evaluate progress of the 2030 SDG Agenda, adopted in 2015, the Global Report on Sustainable Development (GDSR) consists of surveys on scientific findings from ocean livelihoods, to sustainable consumption, production, and disaster risk management, among other issues.   The current roadmap for development has generated prosperity for 'hundreds of millions', the scientists said, but at the cost of other resources and a growing inequality that undermines global growth.   Boosting economies via increasing consumption for example, is exhausting the planet's materials and creating toxic by-products which threaten to overwhelm the world. At the current rate of consumption, use of material is set to almost double between 2017 and 2060, from 89 Gigatons to 167 Gigatons, resulting in consequential increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and other toxic effects from resource extraction, they stressed.   The status quo must change, scientists said, in order to eschew further loss in social cohesion and sustainable economic growth, curb biodiversity losses, and save a world close to tipping points with the global climate system.   For this to happen, all sectors must come together in coordinated action, the report urges. Increasing investment in science for sustainability, is one key approach, and acknowledging that achievement of the SDGs requires economic growth be divorced from environmental degradation, while reducing inequalities.   The experts noted that 'the extensive transformation that is needed will not be easy', and the report suggests that a deep scientific understanding is needed to anticipate and mitigate the tensions and trade-offs inherent in widespread structural change.   Key points of intervention   According to the report, there are 20 points of intervention that can be used to accelerate progress toward multiple goals and targets in the next ten years.   Among these, basic services must be made universally available - healthcare, education, water and sanitation infrastructure, housing and social protection - as a prerequisite toward eliminating poverty.   In addition, ending legal and social discrimination, scaling up trades unions, nongovernmental organizations, women's groups and other communities will 'be important partners in efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda', the experts said.   Inefficient food and energy systems are depriving some 2 billion people of food security, while 820 million are undernourished, and 2 billion adults are overweight. Production processes are causing severe environmental impact.   Transitioning to renewable energy systems could help reduce the 3 billion who rely on pollutants for cooking, and avoid premature deaths, estimated at 3.8 million each year, they cited.   Meanwhile, the energy access gap has left close to one billion without access to electricity at all. Increases in renewable energy supply in the past decade have corresponded with price drops in clean fuel technology - around 77 per cent for solar power and a 38 per cent drop for onshore wind.   With an estimated two-thirds of the global population projected to live in cities by 2050, the experts said achieving the 2030 Agenda will require 'more compact and efficient' urban areas that will be nature-based in infrastructure; but the ecosystem's services and resources 'must be safeguarded'.   What the scientists call the 'global environmental commons' - the rainforests, oceans, and atmosphere - need support from governments, international actors and the private sector to ensure good practices.   http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/globalsdreport/2019 Visit the related web page
	Austerity, the New Normal by Isabel Ortiz, Matthew Cummins Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University, agencies   While this week (11/10/19) Ministers of Finance and economists meet in Washington to confront global economic challenges at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings, the majority of the world population lives with austerity cuts and see their living standards deteriorating. World leaders must reverse this trend.   Since 2010, most governments in both high income and developing counties have been implementing austerity policies, cutting public expenditures. Surprisingly, this trend is expected to continue at least until 2024, according to a global study just published by the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University, global trade unions and civil society organizations. Austerity has become 'the new normal'.   Based on IMF fiscal projections, the study finds that a new fiscal adjustment shock will start in 2020. By 2021, government expenditures as a share of GDP will be declining in 130 countries, nearly three-fourths of which are in the developing world. The reach of austerity is staggering: nearly 6 billion persons will be affected by 2021.   How are governments cutting their budgets and implementing austerity reforms? In practice, the most commonly considered adjustment measures in 2018-19 include: pension and social security reforms (in 86 countries); cutting or capping the public sector wage bill, including the number and salaries of teachers, health workers and civil servants delivering public services (in 80 countries); labor flexibilization reforms (in 79 countries); reducing or eliminating subsidies (in 78 countries); rationalizing and/or further targeting social assistance or safety nets (in 77 countries); increasing regressive consumption taxes, such as sales and value added taxes (in 73 countries); strengthening public-private partnerships (PPPs) (in 60 countries); privatizing public assets/services (in 59 countries); and healthcare reforms (in 33 countries).   All of these measures have negative social impacts. As a result, in many countries older persons have lower pensions; there are not sufficient teachers, medical and care staff, and the quality of public services suffers; there are less jobs, and people work under more precarious conditions; prices increase while wages are stagnant; and the low and middle classes are squeezed and under pressure.   In perspective, the macroeconomic and fiscal choices made by governments over the last decade are alarming. The G20 alone committed US$10 trillion to support the financial sector in response to the global financial crisis, and then passed the costs of adjustment to populations, with millions of people being pushed into poverty and lower living standards.   The worldwide drive toward austerity or fiscal consolidation can be expected to aggravate the growth and employment crisis and diminish public support at a time of high development needs, soaring inequalities and social discontent.   Austerity is also being used as a trojan horse to induce 'Washington Consensus' policies to cut back on public policies and the welfare state. Once budgets are contracting, governments must look at policies that minimize the public sector and expand private sector delivery, including PPPs. There are clear winners and losers from this renewed Washington Consensus, and governments must effectively assess and question these policies.   Austerity and budget cuts do not need to be 'the new normal'. There are alternatives, even in the poorest countries. Governments can find additional fiscal space to fund public services and development policies through at least eight options, which range from increasing progressive tax revenues, cracking down on illicit financial flows, improving debt management and using fiscal and foreign exchange reserves, to adopting more accommodative macroeconomic frameworks, reprioritizing public expenditures and -for lower income countries- lobbying for greater aid. All these options are endorsed by the United Nations and the international financial institutions.   It is time for world leaders to abandon the myopic scope of macroeconomic and fiscal policy decisions that benefit few and, instead, look for new fiscal space and financing opportunities to foster a robust global recovery and the achievement of long-term global prosperity for all.   * Isabel Ortiz is Director of the Global Social Justice Program at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University. Matthew Cummins is an economist who has worked at UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank.   * Access the global study - Austerity, the New Normal (80pp): http://policydialogue.org/files/publications/papers/Austerity-the-New-Normal-Ortiz-Cummins-6-Oct-2019.pdf   * Fiscal Space for Social Protection and the SDGs: Options to Expand Social Investments in 187 Countries 2017 (80pp): http://bit.ly/2VEkAs1
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