How much are you willing to pay for another planet?

Will it be possible to leave outside the room political interests, cultural disparities and distrust in order to achieve a global agreement? Let’s see…

In a world with limited resources, where the survival of almost all species is being threatened, population is growing by leaps and bounds. Regarding this matter, global warming is a known contributor, so now it is time to look forward and think about how we can act in order to tackle this issue and accomplish the wellbeing of our future generations, sons and grandsons, in an environment challenged by climate change.

These issues regarding the future of our planet will be settled “around the table” in Paris, in the 21st United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP21). This annual multi-stakeholder conference will gather world leaders from 195 countries, who will negotiate a possible understanding in the French capital. The COP21 or 2015 Paris Climate Conference, for the first time in over 20 years, has one unique goal: to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate terms, specifically, keeping global warming below 2ºC. This goal can be accomplished by the world economies’ reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), which are mainly water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. You can be questioning, why 2º C? The answer is related to the common threat all species are facing: according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global warming of more than this level would have drastic consequences, e.g. an increase in the number of extreme climate events.

First of all, it is important to keep in mind some reunions and dates to understand how the process regarding climate change negotiations evolved. The first step took place in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro in an event called Earth Summit, where governments had been invited to stabilize the levels of GHG emissions. Next travel is to Kyoto in 1997, which can be considered as an inflection point regarding the climate change agreements. The Kyoto Protocol recognized that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity. At this summit, 37 industrialized countries and the European Community had signed a commitment to reduce their emissions of those gases. Despite being considered one step forward, the fact that two big GHG contributors such as Australia and United States did not sign the agreement, resulted in a bittersweet end for Kyoto Protocol. In 2005, the regime of emissions trading of the European Union started to operate. This regime is one of the pillars in which the EU climatic policy is held. Lately in 2007, industrialized Western economies agreed to achieve a reduction of half the carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Despite the fact that Australia agreed to sign the second stage of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, other big economies such as New Zealand, USA, India, China, Japan and Russia have not had any approach to support the Kyoto protocol. Related to this, one more important date is 2014, when the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, made a deal in order to cap their GHG emissions in a 2025 scope. What is clear is that many regions implied in the future change did not have any interest in joining Kyoto, either for not wanting to compromise its economic growth or not considering themselves responsible for the current situation.

Once the previous attempts to cope with climate change problems have been outlined, it is easy to differentiate two different approaches: industrialized countries, which are mainly responsible for nowadays situation regarding GHG emissions, and from the other side, we can distinguish other types of countries that are growing now and are facing these issues without it being their responsibility at all. The aim of this differentiation is not to confront both perspectives, but to keep in mind that the starting point of them in order to find a deal is far from being the same.

Economy and environment are linked and they can be seen as a trade-off relationship. The economic growth that has taken place during the industrialization is the main variable responsible for climate change. The exploitation of natural resources, such as coal and petrol, has played the starring role in the development of Western economies, allowing them to generate wealth and prosperity at the expense of both the environment and the rest of the world. By not acting now, we are running the risk of having bigger damages than in the two world wars: major hurricanes, instability of weather systems, the melting of the polar ice caps. This last issue will increase the sea level over the world resulting in the flooding of big coastal cities such as New York, London, and the disappearance of a majority of islands. A global issue like this must have a global collaboration among all the parties as a response.

It is difficult to convince others to make an effort if you do not make a sacrifice yourself. Western economies with their huge amount of polluting companies and cities, must bear in mind that their past behaviour is a liability for the whole planet. Western’s position must be flexible and empathic by the hand of using critical thinking with the developing economies. The COP21 is the best opportunity to close this gap looking for a win-win solution, and to jointly set the way forward for the earth’s wellbeing. In contrast to Kyoto, where individual quotes of carbon dioxide reductions were imposed, this summit aims to ensure that the 195 countries will present their voluntary commitment regarding the reduction of their GHG emissions and the policies to work on it.

The future is completely related to the human awareness of what is happening, and might be linked to the use of renewable energies, the new development of green and clean technologies, rethinking production processes in order to be efficient by polluting less and optimizing the use of natural resources. Last but not least, it is clear that beyond what will happen during this summit, each individual, no matter whether they are in the USA, Europe, China or India can contribute their bit.

The rules of the game must change. There is no time to lose arguing about the differences and guiltiness. It is time to set the common goals and work together, the commitment of today will be the success of tomorrow.

Other references consulted:

Edmun Conway (2010). Environmental Economics. In: 50 economics ideas you really need to know. Madrid: Planeta. 186-190.

No hay comentarios / 30 Nov 2015 por Fátima Enríquez Lago
IMSD / climate change, COP21, environmental economics, global agreement, global warming

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