INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS On the Road to Sustainable Development How to Reconcile Climate Protection and Economic Growth BÄRBEL KOFLER AND NINA NETZER(EDS.) May 2012* n The impact of global warming in many countries is preventing sustainable devel­opment or even destroying existing development gains. Increasingly, droughts and flooding are depriving people worldwide of their natural bases of life or their dwel ­lings and increase the risk of migration or displacement, not to mention conflicts over dwindling resources. n Climate change represents a grave development problem as well because it hits hardest poorer countries and particularly vulnerable population groups. They have the lowest coping capacities and have contributed least to global warming. n This disparity raises the question of how burdens and opportunities for climate pro­tection and adaptation are to be distributed fairly among the various actors or how the right to wellbeing and development can be reconciled with the principle of sus­tainability. The strong interdependence of climate change and development leads to the necessity for an integrated approach in order to generate synergies.