For richer, for poorer...

A lady in Burkina Faso shows what is left of her crops. Loss of agriculture is one of the greatest impacts a developing nation can face as this is usually their main source of income. Photo: P. Tosco/Oxfam

Before we take a trip into some of the world’s most under developed nations and try to understand the impacts they face due to climate change, I’d like to welcome you to my first EVER blog. In my 21 years of existence I have never written or read a blog, so it is with some apprehension and enthusiasm that I take you on this expedition with me, into the depths of nations in which climate change has caused major issues, as I (and hopefully you!) try to tackle the environmental and socio-economic impacts that global environmental change brings. Please feel free to comment and interact with this blog, whether it be to agree, disagree or just to leave a thought.

Every single country on the planet is currently facing the impacts of climate change. That is a fact. However, The Gurdian states that studies from the IPCC show that it has and will hit developing regions the most. Areas at high risk of drought such as East Africa will become drier and wet tropical locations e.g. parts of Asia, wetter - thus having a knock on effect on those regions' inhabitants and economy.

I propose to cover (but not limit myself to) the social, economic and environmental impacts of climate change on regions classed as ‘developing’ and how they go about to overcome this problem. It should be remembered that many developing countries, do not contribute to climate change as much as economically established nations e.g. the US, and are therefore bearing the brunt of something they may not have caused. I also intend to look at this in detail over the coming weeks.

The United Nations states that geographical domains for developing nations are: Africa, East Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. What is a developing country I hear you ask? Fear not, your cries have been answered. According to the UN a developing country is a nation with a comparatively inadequate standard of life, and reasonable to low Human Development Index. This index is a proportional evaluation of poverty, mortality rate, quality of education, life expectancy, and other issues. Thus many countries within these regions face limits and constraints to adaptation and mitigation strategies’, therefore increasing their vulnerability and ultimately the impacts this leads to.

 As I bring this post to an end, I'd like to leave you with this graphic: 

Regions in red, amber and yellow are areas that are at potential risk from climate change and the impacts that come with it. Photo: Defence.pk

Have a look at the areas with high vulnerability to climate change (red/amber), and compare them to regions classed as developing by the UN (as mentioned above). What do you see? I can tell you what I see, the areas with high vulnerability are areas described as developing regions by the UN.