The Hindu Business Line : Developing climate sense

The UN meeting on climate issues held recently in Bonn — as a follow-up of the December Bali conference, where the broad strategy for controlling climate change post-Kyoto was chalked out — held no surprises; Washington queered the pitch yet again, telling the developing world that it too had a responsibility to contribute effectively to the worldwide effort. The US stance, therefore, should not be seen as a serious hurdle in the way of detailing a road-map for the next 30-40 years to control global warming.

The Washington is singing the same odd tune as it did in Bali where the conference had, after initial hiccups, agreed to put into place, by end-2009, a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, under which the targets for slashing carbon emissions will expire in 2012. The US has lead the few dissenting voices among the rich which were against making specific pledges till the developing world was brought into the loop. The US statement had mentioned China and India, arguing that it was unfair that the Kyoto effort did not include these economies in the schedule of countries that are to meet specific emission-control targets. Admittedly, at the recent G-8 meeting of energy ministers in Japan, the developed countries, including the US, showed a welcome interest in promoting technological efforts to reduce carbon emissions. More recently, the chairman of the White House Council on Environment Quality revealed that private companies could tap a $10-billion fund being set up by the G-8, the US contribution being $2 billion.

This is not to suggest that the developing countries have little responsibility in doing their bit to control climate change. In fact, the obligation is heightened by the fact that, in terms of population, the poor greatly outnumber the rich and also because emerging economies are using energy on a massive scale to pull people out of poverty. The central point, however, is that the process of climate protection must begin now and that, crucially, the developed economies are in a position today to take initial steps in that direction. It would be tragically short-sighted for the world if human life were ultimately to fall victim to global warming because leaders cannot decide which country should contribute how much, and when.

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