Climate change: Federal Environment Agency supports adaptation in Brazil
Project launch in at-risk north-eastern region
Climate change is real, and the human population worldwide must adapt to its unavoidable consequences. This is especially true in developing and newly-industrialising countries which, although they are particularly affected by climate change, are often least to blame for the problem. The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) is coordinating a project of adaptation to climate change in Brazil, which is starting with a workshop in Rio de Janeiro for delegates from affected rural regions. The main focus in on the northeastern part of the country and its many small farmers, who have been plagued by drought and where the UBA is supporting an agricultural irrigation project that already enjoys international recognition. A solar-powered water supply system is to be installed, and cultivation and sales of regional products are to be promoted. In the course of the project’s two-year duration, adaptation measures for other vulnerable regions in Brazil will be identified and communicated on location. ”As a rich industrialised country we may not stand by idly as global warming renders entire swaths of land at the other end of the earth infertile, food becomes scarcer, and there is danger to life and limb”, said Dr. Benno Hain, head of the new project in Brazil. ”Instead we must launch smart projects that support countries like Brazil in their own efforts”.
