The road to Copenhagen
One of
the grave challenges before the new US President lies on
climate change, which will be taken out United Nationals
conference in Copenhagen. |
With his assertion that the scientific evidence is beyond dispute,
and his promise to open a new chapter in the US approach, President
Barack Obama has raised hopes of a strong climate change agreement
emerging from the United Nations conference to be held in Copenhagen in
December.
The challenge before Obama is to flesh out his vision on climate
change, and turn tough circumstances dominated by a faltering economy
into green economic advantage.
He plans to introduce a national cap-and-trade mechanism for carbon
emissions and spend $15 billion a year to catalyze private initiatives
in solar, wind, next generation bio-fuel, and clean coal technologies.
These investments are expected to help create at least five million
well-paid jobs in the United States.
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Climate
Change matters! |
The great hope now is that this significant change of stance will
enable the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
to produce a balanced, equitable, effective, and ratifiable protocol for
the future. Such a protocol can convince wary developing countries like
India to commit themselves to a cut in their growing carbon emissions.
There are several technical areas that need to be brought under the
ambit of the post-Kyoto agreement for 2013. Nobel laureate Al Gore has
emphasized the importance of including in the new treaty deforestation
and ‘carbon sinks’ such as grazing lands and farms.
The UNFCCC estimates that in order to achieve its ‘most stringent
scenario,’ a new treaty must persuade industrialized countries that by
2020 they must cut emissions by 25 to 40 per cent from 1990 levels. That
goal will require huge additional investments.
The European Commission has pointed out that if developing countries
were also to cut their emissions significantly, about $224 billion a
year would need to be spent by the target date.
These ballpark estimates underscore the need to devise fund-raising
mechanisms based on the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
In this context, the developing world has raised a legitimate demand:
developed countries must transfer technology liberally and set up
funding mechanisms of scale for mitigation and adaptation.
It must get serious about pursuing these missions if it hopes to make
a mark at Copenhagen.
Courtesy: The Hindu
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