The Hindu Business Line : Warming up

The Bali conference on climate change held last year showed the world the way forward to the next phase of the campaign to control the planet’s changing climate, the specific objective being to put a multilateral arrangement in place that will succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol of the UN Convention on Climate Change, which will terminate at the end of 2012. The Bangkok meeting held last week was the beginning of the new process, which is scheduled to end in December 200 9 at Copenhagen.

Clearly, if what happened at Bangkok is any indication, the way forward promises to be full of obstacles, none of which are new. The centre-piece of conflict and controversy between the developed and the developing nations still remains the old problem of financing technological upgradation, with the developing economies (the Group of 77 and China) continuing to press for specific and major commitments from the rich nations while the latter insist on contributions from the poor to part-finance the effort. In fact, the differences have spilled over into the definition of “developing economies” with the developed countries arguing for a further classification among the world’s poor, which would create a category of “advanced developing nations’ in which, among other countries, India and China would figure. The thrust of the argument is that such “advanced developing economies”, with high absolute levels of polluting carbon emissions, should also bear the burden of financing the technological development required to control and reduce future emissions. As is widely recognised, this is not a fair suggestion and, among others, New Delhi has rightly argued that instead of the total volume of emissions, the per capita component should be considered, which would effectively account for the population factor. This issue was discussed over a full day in Bangkok, which suggests that developed countries, like the US and Japan, are not prepared to accept quietly the Bali meeting’s result (also a requirement under the Kyoto Protocol) in terms of which, while the rich will have to make specific commitments to reduce emissions, the developing nations will have to focus on “actions’ to mitigate the emissions within the overall context of sustainable development.

This, and other, battles, will have to be fought over the next two years, but, as far as the Bangkok conference is concerned, it can be said to have accomplished its immediate goal of setting out a work programme, which should end with an action plan for the planet to halt increases in carbon emissions by 2015 and to reduce them dramatically by 2050. The framework of the negotiations has, therefore, been set. It is now the job of the negotiators to agree on the substance, a successful outcome of which will enable human civilisation to ward off man-induced climate-change, which is certain have cataclysmic consequences.

Related Stories:
Global warming: Striking a balance

More Stories on : Editorial | Environment

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Wheat Turmoil 2008 — Resurrection of the farmers’ movement

Warming up

Taming sovereign wealth funds

Is India falling into the Malthusian trap?

Central Government Health Scheme — Sheet anchor of staff morale

Profiting from business intelligence

Economics isn’t dismal

Bank reforms

Inflation