Copenhagan Summit: An opportunity to change the world

World leaders are making another attempt to curb emissions of greenhouse gases by replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol when they meet in Copenhagen on 16th December. This follows two years of tough UN-led negotiations to draft a new climate change agreement and a prolonged public debate in most nations as to how to prevent Global Warming. European Union has already announced that it will meet or exceed its target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2012. Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has taken the issue of Climate Change as one of the moral imperatives which his government will try to take a lead on.

To date, rich nations have emitted the lion’s share of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels, but developing nations are rapidly catching up. Developing countries don’t want to pay for the CO² emissions released in the atmosphere by the developed countries and developed countries don’t want to take upon themselves emission cuts. While the developing and poor countries don’t commit to commit to specific reduction targets, their CO² emissions are now growing five times faster than rich nations.

Countries like India have also been calling for per capita parity in carbon emissions. While per capita carbon emissions is 1.1 tonnes per annum in India it is as high as 56 tones per capita in Qatar and 20 tonnes per capita in US. India has been pursuing the policy of the polluter pays, in which scenario developed countries are likely to be penalized. If India continues to grow at the same rate at which it is growing today, the personal income or people will grow 16 times by 2050. The amount of CO2 emissions released by this big chunk of over a billion people, as they prosper and improve their living standards will in itself cause all climate calculations to go haywire.

Australia’s heavy reliance on coal and less population makes for an average output of 20.58 tonnes of CO² per person per year and if a global emissions reduction target is introduced, Australia will have to change a lot.

Australia needs to take a lead in Climate Change negotiations and the focused approach of Kevin Rudd along with his personal desire to see this pass will ensure Australia remains a niche player in providing Clean Coal technology to other nations which will hurt our economy in the short run but will generate more returns for the economy in the long run. Developing nations will also need money and technology to green their industrialization and Australia needs to be a leader in this field.

Climate change needs a global coordinated response and an agreement on the approach in Copenhagen is a must. The time may come soon to make personal sacrifices. However Climate change skeptics threaten to derail the whole process and instead of proposing solutions to solve the issue are trying to confuse public opinion by offering their own rogue scientific opinions.

There may be no formal agreement in Copenhagen but an understanding is the need of the hour if we want to save this planet.

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