What kind of world do we want?
Oct 06, 2007
<b>By steven A. Browning</b><br><br>On September 27 and 28 in Washington, DC, the US hosted the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change, an initiative based on the fundamental premise that climate change is a generational challenge that requires a global response.
By steven A. Browning
On September 27 and 28 in Washington, DC, the US hosted the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change, an initiative based on the fundamental premise that climate change is a generational challenge that requires a global response.
This meeting was the first in a series of gatherings that include 17 of the world’s major economies, developed and developing, as well as the United Nations. Combined, all participating countries represent about 85 percent of the global economy and 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
This new international initiative was endorsed by G-8 leaders in June and by the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders in Sydney, Australia earlier this month. The Major Economies Meeting last week moved that initiative forward.
The Major Economies Meetings process supported United Nations climate talks by bringing together major economies to develop consensus on key elements of a new framework on climate change. Agreement among the major economies benefits all nations and will contribute to a new global agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by 2009.
There is already international agreement that addressing climate change requires a combination of actions that protect the environment, encourage economic growth and ensure energy security. Likewise, there is common recognition among nations that climate change is a complex and long-term challenge. Nations around the world are already working in partnership to find the technological solutions that hold the key to reducing greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
Our goal for last week’s meeting was to launch a process by which the major economies will, by the end of 2008, agree on key elements of a post-2012 framework, including a long-term global goal and nationally defined mid-term goals. We put special emphasis on how major economies can, in close cooperation with the private sector, accelerate the development and deployment of clean technologies – a critical component of an effective global approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
During the meeting, we discussed each nation’s activities related to energy, security and climate change, worked through opportunities and priorities for progress after 2012, identified urgent needs for research into and development of clean energy technologies, and identified areas for collaboration.
The private sector and non-governmental organisations participated in the meeting. They spoke about the challenges they face, technologies available to them, technologies in development, and how to address funding challenges.
A post-2012 framework should meaningfully engage all countries and recognise the diversity of solutions and approaches that nations will take, based on their needs and resources, to combat climate change. Rather than a “one size fits all†approach, we advocate flexibility, innovation and teamwork on a global scale.
As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in her remarks at the meeting, we all represent many different interests and opinions, but ultimately, we need to answer just one fundamental question: What kind of world do we wish to inhabit and what kind of world do we intend to pass on to future generations? “That question resonates profoundly with every American. We have always found sanctuary and meaning in the majesty of our environment. And we have always been passionate about our duty to be good stewards of the natural world.
As one of our greatest conservationists, President Teddy Roosevelt, said exactly one century ago: ‘There must be a realisation of the fact that to waste, to destroy, our natural resources will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed’,†she said.
President Bush shares this conviction, she said, and he has echoed it himself: “Good stewardship of the environment is not just a personal responsibility. It is a public value. Americans are united in their belief that we must preserve our natural heritage and safeguard the environment.â€
If the world’s major economies can agree on a way forward, that consensus could accelerate the prospects of broader agreement through the United Nations, and on the kind of sustained global commitment it will take — from developed and developing nations — to protect and manage the planet’s fragile balance for this generation and for generations to come.
The writer is the US Ambassador to Uganda
On September 27 and 28 in Washington, DC, the US hosted the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change, an initiative based on the fundamental premise that climate change is a generational challenge that requires a global response.
This meeting was the first in a series of gatherings that include 17 of the world’s major economies, developed and developing, as well as the United Nations. Combined, all participating countries represent about 85 percent of the global economy and 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
This new international initiative was endorsed by G-8 leaders in June and by the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders in Sydney, Australia earlier this month. The Major Economies Meeting last week moved that initiative forward.
The Major Economies Meetings process supported United Nations climate talks by bringing together major economies to develop consensus on key elements of a new framework on climate change. Agreement among the major economies benefits all nations and will contribute to a new global agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by 2009.
There is already international agreement that addressing climate change requires a combination of actions that protect the environment, encourage economic growth and ensure energy security. Likewise, there is common recognition among nations that climate change is a complex and long-term challenge. Nations around the world are already working in partnership to find the technological solutions that hold the key to reducing greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
Our goal for last week’s meeting was to launch a process by which the major economies will, by the end of 2008, agree on key elements of a post-2012 framework, including a long-term global goal and nationally defined mid-term goals. We put special emphasis on how major economies can, in close cooperation with the private sector, accelerate the development and deployment of clean technologies – a critical component of an effective global approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
During the meeting, we discussed each nation’s activities related to energy, security and climate change, worked through opportunities and priorities for progress after 2012, identified urgent needs for research into and development of clean energy technologies, and identified areas for collaboration.
The private sector and non-governmental organisations participated in the meeting. They spoke about the challenges they face, technologies available to them, technologies in development, and how to address funding challenges.
A post-2012 framework should meaningfully engage all countries and recognise the diversity of solutions and approaches that nations will take, based on their needs and resources, to combat climate change. Rather than a “one size fits all†approach, we advocate flexibility, innovation and teamwork on a global scale.
As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in her remarks at the meeting, we all represent many different interests and opinions, but ultimately, we need to answer just one fundamental question: What kind of world do we wish to inhabit and what kind of world do we intend to pass on to future generations? “That question resonates profoundly with every American. We have always found sanctuary and meaning in the majesty of our environment. And we have always been passionate about our duty to be good stewards of the natural world.
As one of our greatest conservationists, President Teddy Roosevelt, said exactly one century ago: ‘There must be a realisation of the fact that to waste, to destroy, our natural resources will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed’,†she said.
President Bush shares this conviction, she said, and he has echoed it himself: “Good stewardship of the environment is not just a personal responsibility. It is a public value. Americans are united in their belief that we must preserve our natural heritage and safeguard the environment.â€
If the world’s major economies can agree on a way forward, that consensus could accelerate the prospects of broader agreement through the United Nations, and on the kind of sustained global commitment it will take — from developed and developing nations — to protect and manage the planet’s fragile balance for this generation and for generations to come.
The writer is the US Ambassador to Uganda