Under his chairmanship, the IPCC has just been awarded the Nobel peace prize for 2007 jointly with Al Gore. Dr R Pachauri has been an eloquent spokesman on the need for nations and its people to take climate change seriously and to take up adaptation and mitigation measures. ‘It is the poorest nations that will be most affected,” he has warned again and again.

Dr Pachauri has authored 23 books and has been awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2001 for his immense contributions in the field of environment.

At the 60th Annual DPI/NGO Conference held at the United Nations in New York Dr. Rajendra  Pachauri, the Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the chairman of the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC) spoke on the world wide concern on climate change. Excerpts:

Why do you state that the poorest sections of society will feel the worst of climate change?
Poor communities are especially vulnerable to climate change. They tend to have more limited adaptive capacities, and are more dependent on climate-sensitive resources such as local water and food supplies.
Non-climate stresses can increase vulnerability to climate change by reducing resilience and can also reduce adaptive capacity because of resource deployment to competing needs. These stresses arise from, for example, current climate hazards, poverty and unequal access to resources, food insecurity, trends in economic globalisation, conflict, and incidence of disease such as HIV/AIDS.

Adaptation will thus be more challenging in developing countries. Africa is in particular one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of low adaptive capacity and multiple stresses.

How is the bio-diversity of the planet threatened by climate change?
By 2100 ecosystems will be exposed to atmospheric CO2 levels substantially higher than in the past 650 000 years, and global temperatures at least among the highest as those experienced in the past 740 000 years. Approximately 20-30% of plant and animal species assessed so far are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 2 to 3°C above preindustrial levels.

Endemic species richness, such as high alpine areas and specific coastal and inland wetland types, is highly vulnerable to projected climate change. Projected sea-level rise is very likely to result in significant losses of coastal ecosystems along the coasts of South and South-East Asia. Stability of wetlands, mangroves and coral reefs around Asia is likely to be increasingly threatened.

How will human health be affected?
Effects of recent climate change on some aspects of human health has already been documented, such as heat-related mortality in Europe, infectious disease, vectors in some areas, and allergenic pollen in Northern Hemisphere high and mid-latitudes.

More frequent flood events and other extreme events may result in an increase in deaths, injuries, infectious diseases, and stress-related disorders. Increased frequency and severity of heat waves may lead to an increase in illness and death, particularly among young, elderly, and frail people, especially in large urban centres.

Respiratory disorders may be exacerbated by warming-induced increases in the frequency of smog (ground-level ozone) events, acidic deposition, and particulate air pollution. In South and South-East Asia, increases in endemic morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoea disease primarily associated with climate change are expected. Increases in coastal water temperature would exacerbate the abundance and/or toxicity of cholera.

What is the impact on agriculture with the rise of temperature and climate change?
About 2.5 to 10% decrease in crop yield is projected for parts of Asia in 2020s and 5 to 30% decrease in 2050s compared with 1990 levels. Production of rice, maize and wheat in the past few decades has declined in many parts of Asia due to increasing water stress arising partly from increasing temperature, increasing frequency of El Niño and reduction in the number of rainy days.

Do women's perspectives matter in policy making with regard to climate change?
Climate change has gender-specific implications in terms of both vulnerability and adaptive capacity. There are structural differences between men and women through, for example, gender-specific roles in society, work and domestic life. These differences affect the vulnerability and capacity of women and men to adapt to climate change.

In the developing world in particular, women are disproportionately involved in natural resource-dependent activities, such as agriculture, compared to salaried occupations. As resource-dependent activities are directly dependent on climatic conditions, changes in climate variability projected for future climates are likely to affect women. Women’s specific vulnerability to climate change is thus an important consideration for the development of interventions to facilitate adaptation.

Unfortunately, as a matter of fact, participation of women in the whole political process, at international, national and local levels is low, both in the South and in the North.

Women’s perspectives and opinion prove particularly important in the field of climate change. Polls show that, compared to men, a larger majority of women rate climate change as a very dangerous threat. Women also tend to believe very firmly that each individual can contribute toward protecting the climate through his/her individual actions. It is therefore crucial to integrate women’s perspectives into all policies and measures within the climate change debate.

What steps have to be taken?
Adaptive responses such as investments in storm protection and water supply infrastructure, as well as community health services, are vital. However, adaptation alone is not expected to cope with all the projected effects of climate change. Reducing green house gases emissions is an urgent need. Changes in lifestyle and behaviour patterns can contribute to climate change mitigation across all sectors.

This also suggests the value of a mix of strategies that includes further research (on climate science, impacts, adaptation and mitigation) and technological development (particularly in the fields of energy supply, transport, building).