The Disproportionate Burden of Climate Change: Challenges and Policy Solutions for the Marginalized

Climate change is taking place around the globe. Its impact is felt by all. But it sure does not affect all in a similar manner. There are certain geographies and within them certain class that are bearing the brunt of it the most. The nature sure does not discriminate but people do. Looking back at history, we know that the driving force behind industrialization had been none other than the west or the so-called developed nations. The developing nations or the not so industrialized society has paid the cost of the industrialization in form of loss of indigenous markets and economy which in turn, even then, has affected the marginalized section the most. Today, the situation is not much different. The rich perpetrate the degradation of the environment and the marginalized pay the cost of it. Be it floods, cyclones, landslides or any kind of diseases that are result of rising global temperature, it is the marginalized section which struggles to cope up and adapt to the disastrous consequences of the environmental degradation to which they have probably contributed the minimal. The loss of biodiversity affects these marginalized people, the most, who depend on the natural habitat for their day-to-day activities. However, these people are never considered as stakeholders when it comes to formulating policy measures by world leaders at any of the environmental conferences nor are their governments sensitive about their needs. The need of the hour is to consider the requirements of the marginalized sections across geographies in all the developing countries and bring the voices of these people to the negotiating table so that their struggles can be empathetically felt and be indoctrinated in the climate change mitigating and adapting measures of the countries. The paper proposes to point out the disproportionate cost that the marginalized sections in all the developing nations pay as a consequences of climate change and how their burdens can be decreased. Also, the paper proposes to bring the voices of these people to the world forum and that policies be made concerning them as one of the major stakeholders in mitigating the effects of climate change and discuss the need for sensitization for ones who are least at any fault in bringing about the climate change conditions.