A call for climate justice
Only a few days to go before the Fifteenth Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15) in Copenhagen, it may be worthwhile to recapitulate some key observations made by global leaders and eminent participants in the Global Editors' Forum held in the Danish capital between October 9 and 11. This was staged jointly by the Project Syndicate, an international media think-tank, and the Danish government. The gathering of leading opinion shapers, 300 media representatives from all around the world including editors, politicians, climate specialists, scientists and economists from both developed and developing countries, was organized in order to address the questions: How close are we to an agreement to preserve world's environment from further degradation? Also, what are the major impediments and how to evolve best instruments in terms of reaching an effective and fair agreement on this difficult matter? Bangladesh's State Minister for Environment and Forests, Dr. Hasan Mahmud, took part in the Forum's special panel on 'The Politics of Climate Change and Energy Security'. This panel focused on the domestic and international politics of global warming and energy security, including 'the impact of scarcity and the search for alternative energy sources on both governments and the world order.' Also the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, Mrs. Connie Hedegaard and the former German Foreign Minister and leader of the Green Party, Mr. Joschka Fischer, were amongst the panelists. This Panel was held on the morning of Sunday, October 11. Bangladesh emits carbon only 0.2 ton, developing countries 1.6 ton and developed countries 15-20 ton. Though, Bangladesh pollutes less, yet she is the most vulnerable country. Describing the miserable condition of Bangladesh, Dr. Hasan Mahmud said, “our country is now under cross-fire of developed countries(differences)." He said there is no alternative to reaching negotiation in the forthcoming COP15 climate conference of 192 countries of the world. We must come to an agreement, in the interest of all countries, rich and poor, they being susceptible to climate change effects, sooner or later. Joseph Stiglitz, Professor of Economics, Columbia University and Nobel laureate said the central point of climate vulnerability resistance must be poverty alleviation. He mentioned that climate change and poverty alleviation are interrelated. He also said, “Developing countries, LDCs and countries like Bangladesh should invest more to preserve rain forest. That will lead them along economic development pathway. He called upon the developed countries to create opportunities for investment in education, health and infrastructure of these countries” and added that to resist climate vulnerabilities these future targeted programmes for those countries would have to be assured. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said: "I am very concerned about progress towards a positive outcome in Copenhagen but I remain determined to succeed. The EU has contributed a lot to this negotiation with our binding emission reduction targets, and our ideas on finance, which received a positive welcome in New York. Now is not the time to look for Plan B or we will end up with Plan F -- for failure. We will continue to do all we can to seal the deal in Copenhagen." He also said, "It is an important moral issue: firstly in a development context where developing countries, as Kofi Annan has said so eloquently, will bear the brunt of climate change, while having the least means of tackling it; and secondly, in an inter-generational context. We simply have no right to impose the pain and the cost of climate change on future generations. Moreover, Nick Stern tells us, definitively, that tackling climate change later will cost much more than doing it now." He also said, "I am often told by developing countries that we, the industrialised world, are responsible for climate change. My response is: you're right. But correctly assigning responsibility for the past doesn't address the future. If the industrialized world reduced its emissions to zero today, and if the developing countries continued with business as usual, we would still reach the dangerous level of 650 ppm (parts per million) by 2050." He emphasized on the need for a truly global deal. He said, "Please remember that we are not asking the same commitments from developing countries. Developed countries have to put on the table binding economy-wide targets for CO2 reduction. We must strive to achieve the necessary, collective 25-40% reductions by 2020." Prime Minister of Denmark Lars Lokke Rasmussen said, "We have to do more. National actions, although ambitious, are not enough. And this is exactly why we need a new global agreement. An agreement that can create the framework to lead the world the rest of the way." He sounded positive on sealing the deal in Copenhagen. He also said, "We have taken the necessary decisions and we have created a highly competitive green economy." He also mentioned that in 2011 20 per cent of Danish energy production will stem from renewables. And by 2020 it will be 30 percent; most of this will come from wind turbine. Last month he opened the world's largest off shore wind turbine park in the North Sea. Such turbine will produce enough electricity to supply 200,000 households. He underlined that a political agreement of the intended magnitude requires full engagement at the highest level. Success will depend on the continued engagement of Heads of State and Government. Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary-General said, “More then 20 million people were displaced by climate related disasters, and this number will grow”. He also said, “Livelihoods are being ruined and lives lost -- with the most vulnerable paying the highest price”. He maintained “For being universal and ambitious, any future agreement must be underpinned by climate justice. Businesses and countries must put the future of the planet before short-term profits” . President Obama has said about climate change, “science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear and that delay is no longer an option”. The former UN Secretary-General said, "The United States in particular has a huge responsibility to come to Copenhagen with the ambitious and generous position the world expects from it". According to Kofi Annan, "Climate justice means, firstly, that a new agreement will be successful only if it is perceived by all participating countries to be equitable; climate justice demands that the industrialized countries meet their historical responsibility for the accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere; while all countries need to take steps to reduce emissions, the developed economies must take the lead by making the most dramatic cuts -- something within their capability; they must lead in ensuring global emissions peak by 2020 -- and fall by at least 50% from 1990 levels by 2050; to achieve this, industrialized nations need to commit themselves to reduce emissions by between 20 and 40% by 2020 as Japan and the EU have already pledged to do; first-emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India and South Africa also need to engage meaningfully but in a way which does not prevent them improving standards of living through economic growth; this requires them to commit to reducing their energy intensity significantly by 2020, and agreeing to emission reduction targets afterwards; these steps by both industrialized and fast-emerging economics must be backed by national policies and targets that can be monitored and verified."
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