'Wrong policies will make 1 bn more people poor by 2030'

London, Jan 15: Almost one billion more people globally may face extreme poverty by 2030 if world leaders fail to make concrete decision on inequality and climate change at two UN summits to be held this year. The "action/2015", an international coalition of more than 1,000 organisations, warned that global poverty could rise for the first time in a generation if politicians make the wrong calls, The Independent reported Thursday. The "action/2015" campaign will target the UN summit in New York in September, which will discuss a new agenda to replace the millennium development goals set in 2000, which expire this year. The new agenda is expected to include ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests. The campaign will also demand tough action to tackle man-made climate change when UN-led negotiations on a new global agreement reach a climax in Paris in December. Research for the campaign by the University of Denver shows that, if world leaders get it right, the number of people living in extreme poverty - less than 82 pence or about Rs.77 ($1.25) a day - could be reduced dramatically from more than one billion to 360 million by 2030. By then, about 4 per cent of the global population would live in extreme poverty, down from 17 per cent today. This would make eradicating extreme poverty achievable for the first time in history.