EDITORIAL
Coping with climate change
- Published: 19/11/2011 at 03:24 AM
- Newspaper section: News
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saw the extent of Thailand's flood problem for himself this week. Now he intends to use it as a case study to press world leaders to commit to climate change initiatives at the "make or break" global summit in South Africa later this month. That should strike an emotional chord with the delegates in Durban because some of them held a preparatory workshop here in April and observed a moment's silence to honour the 53 Thais who had just died in the floods in the South. They had no idea of the horror that was to come.
Although the Bangkok climate change meeting failed to provide a breakthrough, the two-week South African summit must deliver constructive results, if only to justify its carbon footprint. Failure cannot be an option because the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol next year means that time has nearly run out for any kind of comprehensive climate deal to replace it. Global leaders must rise to the occasion because taxpayers cannot afford to sponsor any more expensive talking shops at which they "agree to disagree".
Unfortunately, the success rate of international conferences which pit the interests of the developing and developed worlds against each other is disturbingly low.The world is a selfish place, with national interests regularly being given precedence over global concerns. The dilemma is how to get these to converge. Remember that the historic Earth summit in Rio in June 1992 did show that it was possible. It successfully tackled the environmental, economic and social challenges facing the international community at that time. Its sequel, 10 years later in Johannesburg, was supposed to find ways of achieving sustainable development to combat poverty. Instead it was a resounding flop. What we hope to see in Durban is the kind of positive attitude that leads to successful compromise.
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