The Hindu Business Line : Global warning

The setting could not have been more appropriate for a meeting of the UN Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change — Bangkok, a modern city of 12 million that belches up a variety of gases from the millions of air-conditioners and refrigerators, from vehicles and from the power plants that burn ever more quantities of fossil fuels. As the heat-trapping gases warm the atmosphere, glaciers melt at a faster rate, sea levels are pushed up, and the consequences are as diverse as drought, flooding, violent storms and increased hunger and disease.

These may be the side-effects of development but can nothing be done to mitigate the impact? Thus, for much of last week, scientists and government representatives from around the world tried to strike an acceptable balance between the demand and effects of development, on the one hand, and addressing the issue of global warming, on the other. They came out with the IPCC's third report this year on different aspects of climate change. The two earlier reports predicted a gloomy future of greenhouse gas emissions driving temperatures up by 6 degrees Celsius by the end of this century; even a 2-degree Celsius rise can leave up to two billion people water-starved by 2050 and threaten extinction for 20-30 per cent of the world's species, as the IPCC said.

While most leaders gathered in Bangkok had an inventory of the problems and solutions — renewable energy, nuclear power, bio-fuels and reforestation — what they did not have on their lists was `consensus'. For instance, if just the mention of nuclear energy irks some sections, others would be sore at taxes and caps on carbon-dioxide emissions or the carbon price, that is, finding a way to make consumers and businesses pay for the pollution they create. Any talk of moderation by the developed nations only leads to finger-pointing at the developing countries for their omissions and commissions, the latest weapon being the indictment of rice-producing nations for methane generation. Lost in this often-politicised din is the realisation that every country has a stake in fighting global warming and that this is best done together.

This calls for consensus, lifestyle changes and innovative technologies. The first may be elusive but lifestyle changes can be people's initiatives such as curbing the compulsion to excessively heat/cool homes, or avoiding long commutes. Happily, technological solutions are already appearing — for instance, the Compact Fluorescent Lamp that saves energy, or the hybrid vehicle that could change the transport sector's image of being a major polluter. More importantly, such clean technologies, created usually by the West, must be freely made available to the developing world. The West must not baulk at this but see it as repentance for past sins against nature. The IPCC can only give reports but the political will to implement them must come from world capitals, such as Bangkok.

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