Future sold out A potential bargaining tool to challenge the inequitable sharing of global common resources, such as the atmosphere, is slipping out of the hands of the South for good, according to Anil Agarwal, Director, Centre for Science and Environment New Delhi.
The much-publicised Kyoto Agreement to combat the threat of climate change is neither an agreement that will save the world from the threat of climate change nor will it protect the interests of developing countries. "In fact, the battle between developed and developing nations has not ended. It will continue in the months ahead as the protocol has left many things open for future negotiations leading up to the next conference of parties scheduled to be held in Buenos Aires in 1998," says a team of the Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based NGO, which attended the Kyoto conference.
The United Nations has expressed concern over the sluggish approach of the developed countries in reaching an agreement to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. A meeting to evolve a common international strategy on this issue was held recently in Bonn, Germany. The European Union had suggested a 15 per cent cut in greenhouse gases by the year 2000. The US and Japan, however, term the figure as unrealistic. During the talks in Bonn, negotiators worked to refine and streamline the draft text for a new agreement under the climate change convention. By the year 2000, the developed countries have agreed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions to the levels recorded in the year 1990.
The industrialise countries have released billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but want the south to play nanny to them and clean up the mess
Global warming is not imaginary. Most scientists agree that greenhouse gases have been accumulating in the atmosphere, leading to the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases ( ghgs) such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are produced naturally. However, industrialisation has led to a steep rise in their emissions. Since they break down very slowly, these gases have accumulated in the atmosphere. The result: global warming.
Lifting the veil
Author: Anil Agarwal
Jan 15, 1998
The carefully-planned us strategy on climate change negotiations is slowly beginning to become transparent. In a report just published in the International Herald Tribune (iht) (December 15, 1997), a Washington Post correspondent spells out this strategy. Under pressure from the Congress which had bought the hard line of the us automobile and oil industry, the Clinton-Gore Administration had realised that it could not go to Kyoto with strong commitments. It, therefore, had a clear choice. It could either walk out of the negotiations or it could keep itself active in the negotiations even if it brokered a flawed deal. The former choice would leave it with no influence over the negotiations while the latter would help the us to maintain a key role in the negotiations.
Author: Anil Agarwal
Jan 15, 1998 If predictions of global warming turn out to be true, the ludicrous decisions taken at the Kyoto conference will prove very costly to the world
If, by the grace of God, the predicted ill-effects of global warming are muted or just fail to appear, then the world can write off Kyoto as an unnecessary exercise. But if indeed they bear upon humanity as predicted by most scientists, then the ghost of inaction in Kyoto will repeatedly come back to haunt the world.