UN warns of climate apartheid as the poor suffer more

“Although poor people are the ones that pollute less, they bear the burden of climate change and have little chance to protect themselves from its effects”, the UN special rapporteur for extreme poverty and human rights said.

We risk entering the scenario of a climate apartheid where the richest are paying to avoid heat, hunger and conflicts, while the rest of the world remains to suffer them”, Alston said in a statement that was published during a meeting of the UN Council for Human Rights in Geneva.

“Climate change can bring 120 million people into poverty by 2030”, writes Alston in his report, which is based on studies previously published by the World Bank, UN organisations and non-government groups.