Developing Countries

In the midst of global economic turmoil, scientific projections about the consequences of a warmer planet may seem more remote to countries negotiating a climate change treaty this week in Buenos Aires. Fears that warming temperatures could raise sea levels, alter rainfall patterns and wreak havoc on food production systems could temporarily take a back seat to the social and economic concerns posed by the global financial crisis.

Vehicle and airplane pollution from developing countries will match the developed world's by 2015, hindering efforts to curb smog and global warming, a group that includes six of the world's 10 largest companies said. The amount of energy that developing nations use for transportation will more than double to the equivalent of 23 million barrels of oil a day by 2015 as compared with 11 million barrels in 1999, said a report from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Poor countries are getting caught in the undertow of the global economic downturn, and their interests should be put first when trade ministers begin rewriting the rules of world commerce, the World Bank said Wednesday. In its annual report on the outlook for developing countries, the World Bank said another round of trade liberalization, if done correctly, would have a huge payoff for the world's small, struggling economies.