EDITORIAL
At last week's Group of Eight (G8) summit on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, climate change battled heightened economic worries for top billing. With all the major polluters at the table on Wednesday at the so-called Major Economies Meeting, which in addition to the world's richest nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - also featured India, China and eight more top contributors to greenhouse gases, this year's G8 summit delivered the kind of watered-down statement we have come to expect from these sorts of international conferences.
Leaders of the G8 nations earlier in the week reached a tentative agreement to halve emissions by 2050, but leaders of some of the developed nations present refused to sign off on it because of the enormous costs this would entail and because the responsibilities of the rich countries were not made clear. In particular, concrete commitments to achieve substantial reductions by 2020 were not included.
As in the past, the prevailing view at this year's summit was that coming to grips with climate change would put severe strains on even the most robust economies, despite increasing evidence that successful strategies to minimise global warming can actually stimulate economic growth.
A statement on the summit from the World Wildlife Fund says it is "pathetic" that the world's richest nations still duck their historic responsibility. The G8 are responsible for 62% of the carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere,
On the other hand, US President George Bush is entirely correct in maintaining that developing nations, particularly India and China, must join in any sacrifices - despite their exemption under the current ill-fated Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 - or any efforts by the rest of the industrialised world would be futile. If India and China continue to incorporate mostly fossil fuel technologies into their burgeoning infrastructures there is little hope of coming to grips with climate change.
First and last, it all hinges on economics. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, has estimated that more than $200 billion will be needed every year until 2030 to bring the world's emissions down to 1990 levels, something considered absolutely necessary by climate scientists if we are to avoid the worst-case scenarios for climate change. Still more will be needed to reduce those levels by half in the remaining 20 years until 2050.
That is a staggering amount of money. Yet the governments of the world spend five times $200 billion each year on armaments and defence systems, and that expense is not only considered justified, it stimulates economies as it creates wealth and jobs. Surely tax revenues spent to preserve the environment can also have a stimulating economic effect.
Moreover, clean energy alternatives present entrepreneurial opportunities that weapons systems do not. In an article in the May issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Robert F. Kennedy Jr points out that significant government incentives to encourage non-fossil fuel based technologies have been instrumental in producing thriving economies in Sweden and Iceland, and in the US state of California. There's no reason such entrepreneurship cannot take place in developing countries. Mr Kennedy also stresses the need to adapt energy grids to accommodate non-traditional energy suppliers.
On the plus side, the expanded G8 meeting did produce some good dialogue between the developed and rapidly developing world, and useful arrangements for technolgy transfers and assistance were initiated. All present agreed to back a UN effort to conclude a climate pact to replace Kyoto by 2009. It's a sure bet that economics will continue to be at the centre of the debate.
The entire world must accept the fact that it is being presented with a long overdue bill for a lifestyle that, it must be admitted, originated in the world's richest countries, and has been perpetuated and exported by these countries. It is high time to stop balking and start making payments.
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