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BALI,
Indonesia—The year 2007 marks a very important period
for climate change. Earlier this year the world’s
leading scientists confirmed that without a doubt,
humans have had an impact on the world’s climate
system—and that these impacts are already very evident.
Even economists warned that we need to
act sooner rather than later to address climate change,
as the longer we delay taking action the more
devastating the impacts will be and the higher the
economic costs.
Now, all eyes are on the paradise of
Bali as world leaders will set a framework that will
attempt to prevent the impending disaster of global
warming.
With the UN climate conference here
entering the crucial second week of negotiations, more
than 10,000 delegates from 180 countries have to make a
last-ditch effort to save the world from catastrophe.
The aim is to require industrial nations to limit their
emission of carbon dioxide to 25 percent to 40 percent
below 1990 levels by 2020. This is necessary, they
proclaim, in order to head off rising oceans, drought,
famine, dying species and, well, just plain catastrophe.
Ahead of the high-level negotiations,
more than 200 scientists released a declaration urging
the governments to act swiftly as there is a window of
only 10 to 15 years for global emissions to peak and
decline, and that the ultimate goal should be at least a
50-percent reduction in climate-warming emissions by
2050.
As the conference in Bali struggled on,
several proposals were bandied about. Developing
countries demanded rapid transfers of technology, an
adaptation fund to help them combat climate change,
while the majority of countries formed a consensus,
demanding that the US take the lead in imposing
mandatory cutbacks on emissions. That way, China and
India and other developing countries might learn from
the
US.
So far, the US is standing firm. The
United States, the only rich nation not party to Kyoto,
has made it clear it will not commit to any such figure
during this meeting. With Australia’s new government now
having signed the Protocol,
America
is now the sole holdout among the industrialized
countries.
“Our feeling about Kyoto has not
changed. It is not something that would work for the
United States,” said Harlan Watson, US senior climate
negotiator.
UN’s Framework for Climate Change
Conference executive secretary Yvo de Boer said, though,
that “expectations for
Bali to provide
answers are big. The eyes of the world are upon you.
There is a huge responsibility for
Bali to deliver.”
Time is
running out
“It is
critical that all countries act now,” said Environment
Secretary Jose Atienza, head negotiator of the
Philippine delegation, during an interview with the
BusinessMirror in
Bali. “It is
imperative to start the process in Bali. We need to send
a strong statement to the international community that
we at the Bali negotiations can act with the requisite
sense of urgency and import.”
Atienza said the Philippines supports
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
report released by the world’s leading scientists,
adding that the Philippine government is
committed to a strong agreement to restrain global
warming.
“The solutions to global warming require
the participation of all countries. The problem of
global warming is so vast that every nation
should
come together and act on mitigation and adaptation
measures,” Atienza said.
Bali
ain’t no holiday
It is
relaxing indeed in this small island of Bali with its
rich traditional culture, sandy beaches, lush forests
and fragile coral reefs. But environment activist groups
said all government leaders who are at the negotiation
table had to get their acts together.
“This meeting may be in Bali but this
certainly ain’t no holiday,” said Shane Rattenbury of
Greenpeace International.
“Governments know that if they don’t act
on climate change, the environmental, social and
economic costs will be huge. We want to see
the
ministers hit the ground running,” Rattenburry said.
Hans Verlome, director of the World
Wildlife Fund’s Climate Change Program, urged the US,
Japan and others to take more decisive action in light
of an IPCC report that found global warming is occurring
and is likely caused by humans. “We did not come to Bali
to just have another process, and we have two years of
talks. It is time to get on with it,” said Verlome. “The
IPCC report has delivered the results that are necessary
to inform decision-making, and the decision-making is
here, now.”
What future does Bali hold? Many say,
it’s now up to the world leaders to decide.
“If Bali will do what I hope it will do,
we are facing the enormous challenge of shaping a future
climate-change deal in only two years’ time. This may
seem like the impossible task of squaring a circle of
conflicting interests. I firmly believe it can be done,
if we can point the way on how we will turn four
corners,” De Boer said. |
