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Right now the United Nations Climate Change Change Conference 2009 is taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark. World leaders, scientists, business leaders, environmentalists, journalists and all sorts of special interest groups have gathered in the Danish capital to discuss climate change, work out  a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol and draft a masterplan to make billions of dollars in revenue over the next few decades.

Face it, the Climate Change Conference is a business conference. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. The most effective way to drive innovation and change is by creating markets. More about this in another post.

Officially the Copenhagen summit is about tackling climate change. All evidence indicates that global warming is real. And the consequences will be dire for the entire world community, though some will suffer more than others. At this point it looks like the poorest countries will suffer the most from rising sea levels, accelerating desertification, extended dry seasons and other extreme weather phenomenons. Food shortages and water scarcity as consequences of droughts are likely to threaten the stability of entire continents. Africa will be the first victim.

Most likely the current changes taking place in the global climate system were caused or at least accelerated by humans. And it will be human behavior caused by the effects of climate change that will ultimately harm other human beings the most.

That is the main reason why first world countries just can’t continue taking baby steps. Since industrialization kicked off in Europe in the late 18th century, industrialized countries have exploited the world’s resources selfishly, polluted creeks, rivers and oceans, chopped down a good deal of the world’s rainforests and emitted enormous amounts of toxic gases into the atmosphere.

With this in mind, it is obvious that Europeans and Americans have the responsibility to lead the world on the path to a more sustainable economic development. However, this does not mean that rapidly developing countries such as Brazil, China and India can feel free to emit as much as they want to until they reach a level of industrialization similar to the American or European one. This truth is self-evident since Mother Earth cannot accomodate another 300 million people consuming like Americans. No way. The world can accomodate 1.3 billion Chinese living a prosperous yet sustainable lifestyle. The world can even accomodate another 2.5 billion people with whom we will have to share the planet by 2050. The world’s population is estimated to be about 9.2 billion by then, up from the current 6.7 billion.  - ONLY if we learn how to use resources more efficiently this increase in population will be managable.

If we fail to provide the entire population of the world with opportunities to live a good life without taxing the planet’s capacities too much, this will result in violence, wars, mass starvation and limitless suffering.

First-world countries are not immune to the consequences of global warming. Unprecedented human movement will take place as hundreds of millions of people could soon be forced leave their areas.

Widespread suffering and desparation fuels radicalization. Conflicts caused by climate change could easily become the bloodiest earth has ever experienced.

Moreover, several rich nations such as Spain, Portugal, the Southwestern United States and Australia will also suffer from the transition to a more arid climate.

The climate summit in Copenhagen is a chance to keep climate change managable. It is not anymore avoidable, but it lies in our hands to prevent the worst from happening.

I’m glad to see world leaders making an effort and raising awareness for the issue. Nonetheless, I’m disappointed how carelessly most politicians squander opportunities to achieve real progress by using the high popularity of climate conservation as an instrument to advance their own short-sighted purposes.

All around the world it can be seen that governments use all means available to thighten their grip on society. If it’s for the environment’s sake, it is OK to come up with ridiculous taxes, fees and counterproductive regulations. The climate debate is also frequently used to cover up protectionist measures.

Following the events at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, I have the impression that more politicians than ever are serious about coming up with a feasible solution to mitigate global warming. However, one bad idea after the other is being rolled out globally. Most politicians tend to overestimate the importance of reducing all sorts of CO2 emissions from cars, planes, factories and power plants while at the same time, they seem to ignore the enormous amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere from the avoidable deforestation taking place in rainforests from Brazil to Indonesia.

Forcing airlines into emissions trading would be a symbol. But not a very appealing one to developing nations where the new middle classes have just come to enjoy the pleasure of flying for the first time. Airline emissions account for roughly 3% of global CO2 emissions. Reducing airlines’ emissions by 30% would not have a measurable impact on the climate. Such a tiny decrease will easily be nullified by 1466 cars added to Beijing’s streets every day.

Furthermore, most politicians overestimate their own power. Including air travel in the European emissions trading scheme is pointless if other countries don’t follow. European governments are prone to choose the option that would give them the most control over the economy. That’s why they prefer the emissions trading for airlines to creating a single European sky which would immediately reduce emissions by up to 12% and save a lot of money at the same time.

There are countless examples just like that.  But what I care much more about is this:

“Imagine if you took all the cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships in the world and added up their exhaust every year. The amount of carbon dioxide, or CO2, all those cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships collectively emit into the atmosphere is actually less than the carbon emissions every year that result from the chopping down and clearing of tropical forests in places like Brazil, Indonesia and the Congo.” (from “A Way to Save the Planet’s Lungs”, by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times international weekly edition, November 23, 2009)

Reducing emissions in the transportation sector requires a lot of money, political will and time. We lack all three. But, reducing emissions from deforestation in the world’s rainforests which releases even more emissions than all the cars, planes, ships, etc. takes only some money and political will, and  it could be done within the matter of years.

Putting in place a system that rewards Brazilians, Indonesians, Malaysians when conserving their forests - our world’s lungs - rather than rewarding them for burning them down, planting soy beans, raising cattle and shipping the meat to us, would be the fastest and most efficient approach to our climate program. These people don’t burn down forests for the pleasure of doing so. They depend on it for making a living. And there’s no way of telling them to refrain from doing so because of the negtive long-term implications. These people are more concerned about their short-term survival.

Here’s where the world community needs to step in, provide them with alternatives and thereby save the rainforests and our planet. Rainforests release CO2 when they’re being burned down. Conversely, they absorb CO2 when they’re preserved.

The bottom line is that there are easy and effective ways to curb CO2 emissions immediatley. This needs to be done to buy us some more time to increase the efficiency of our economies to allow emerging nations to gain some more wealth the old-fashioned way while the U.S. and Europe start generating wealth the smart way.

In my next post I will focus on what the U.S. in particular can do and what role China plays.

Just before completing this post I came across this article:

“Google launches System for Measuring Deforestation and Combating Climate Change”

check it out: Baynewser: Google Launches…

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 6:13 PM and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.