WB asks G-20 to take steps to deal with eco crisis

In a stark warning, the World Bank today said if the G-20 leaders of developed and emerging nations failed to take concrete steps at their April 2 summit here, there would be social unrest and political crisis across the globe, affecting mostly the poorest countries.

"We have to look at the impact of this on low income countries. Otherwise, without wanting to sound alarmist, social unrest and political crisis could be the result. It's in the self-interest of everyone to prevent that," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director of the World Bank, told the Observer.

Her warning came as a new report from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) said the collapse of the global economy would cost 90 million lives, lead to an increase to nearly a billion in the number of people going hungry and cost developing countries $750 billion in lost growth.

"Tens of millions of people will be forced back below the poverty line. There will be irreversible effects on the very poorest," said Simon Maxwell, the ODI's director.

The ODI is calling for an extra $50 billion in aid for Africa, and urging G-20 countries to set aside a "significant proportion" of the cash they are spending on fiscal packages, to help build up the infrastructure in poor countries, and lift people above the breadline.