Climate change in the Commonwealth
Nov 15, 2007
CLIMATE change is the main topic on the agenda of the Youth Forum, which started yesterday. The Commonwealth, which represents one quarter of the world’s countries, can play a crucial role in steering the Bali conference next month, where a new climate change policy will be discussed to replace t
By Gerald Tenywa
CLIMATE change is the main topic on the agenda of the Youth Forum, which started yesterday. The Commonwealth, which represents one quarter of the world’s countries, can play a crucial role in steering the Bali conference next month, where a new climate change policy will be discussed to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Climate change is a result of an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which trap the heat escaping from the earth surface. Greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide emissions, generated by factories, vehicles and burning of trees.
International experts have now confirmed that climate change is a reality. Temperatures rise, ice on the North Pole and on high mountains melt, rivers flood and weather patterns become unpredictable, with more storms and longer spells of drought, causing natural disasters, epidemics and food insecurity.
The 53 Commonwealth countries are responsible for 14.2% of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions. Of this, over 90% is generated by only five countries, while 41 have such low emission rates that their impact is negligible on the world scale.
India tops the list. It accounts for 5.1% of the world’s total share, mainly due to its large population of 1.2 billion. It is followed by Canada (2.3%), the UK (2.2%), Australia (1.4%) and South Africa (1.4%).
In terms of carbon dioxide emissions per capita, Trinidad and Tobago is the highest, with 22 metric tons produced per person per year. Australia and Canada also have high pollution rates per person, standing at about 18%.
In comparison, six Commonwealth countries, including Uganda, have emission rates of only 0.1 metric tons per person.
In a bid to cut global emissions of greenhouse gases, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997. Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emission trading if they maintain or increase emissions.
Under the agreement, the industrialized countries are supposed to reduce their collective emissions by 5.2% of the level of 1990.
China, India and other developing countries were not given any numerical limitation because they were not the main contributors to the greenhouse gas emissions during the industrialisation period that is believe to be causing today’s climate change.
The Kyoto Protocol was officially put into force on February 16, 2005. A total of 166 countries have agreed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which make up for more than 55% of the greenhouse gases released into our atmosphere.
There are still 30 countries which have not yet adopted the protocol. The US and Australia have said they would not ratify it. They argue that the fact that China and India are not following the treaty is unfair, and that reducing greenhouse gases will make their people lose jobs.
Twenty-four countries have neither signed nor ratified the treaty. Four of them - Brunei, St. Kitts and Nevis, Tonga and Sierra Leone - are Commonwealth countries.
The treaty expires in 2012, and international talks began in May this year on a future treaty to succeed the current one.
Poor countries, particularly in Africa, still refuse to accept any targets, arguing that they bear the brunt of global warming, yet they are the least responsible for it. At a recent African Union summit, President Yoweri Museveni, declared climate change an act of aggression by the rich world against the poor one, similar to the slave trade and colonisation – and demanded compensation.
“The Western countries should reduce their emissions. We are not the contributors, we are the victims,†said also South Africa’s Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, at a summit in Addis Ababa in January.
If the predictions of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, hold true, climate change may have a graver effect on Africa than on any other continent.
It predicts a minimum 2.5°C increase in temperature in Africa by 2030. Dry lands bordering the deserts may get drier; wetlands bordering the rainforests may get wetter.
The panel suggests the supply of food in Africa will be “severely compromised†by climate change, with crop yields in danger of collapsing in some countries.
Between 75m and 250m Africans, out of the 800m now living in sub-Saharan Africa, may be short of water. Vegetative cover will recede and an estimated 600,000 square kilometres of cultivable land may be ruined.
“In the past 30 years, we have seen some of the worst weather and disasters, which impact on African economies as they are heavily dependent on agriculture,†said Abdoulaye Kignaman-Soro, head of the African Centre for Meteorological Application in Development.
CLIMATE change is the main topic on the agenda of the Youth Forum, which started yesterday. The Commonwealth, which represents one quarter of the world’s countries, can play a crucial role in steering the Bali conference next month, where a new climate change policy will be discussed to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Climate change is a result of an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which trap the heat escaping from the earth surface. Greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide emissions, generated by factories, vehicles and burning of trees.
International experts have now confirmed that climate change is a reality. Temperatures rise, ice on the North Pole and on high mountains melt, rivers flood and weather patterns become unpredictable, with more storms and longer spells of drought, causing natural disasters, epidemics and food insecurity.
The 53 Commonwealth countries are responsible for 14.2% of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions. Of this, over 90% is generated by only five countries, while 41 have such low emission rates that their impact is negligible on the world scale.
India tops the list. It accounts for 5.1% of the world’s total share, mainly due to its large population of 1.2 billion. It is followed by Canada (2.3%), the UK (2.2%), Australia (1.4%) and South Africa (1.4%).
In terms of carbon dioxide emissions per capita, Trinidad and Tobago is the highest, with 22 metric tons produced per person per year. Australia and Canada also have high pollution rates per person, standing at about 18%.
In comparison, six Commonwealth countries, including Uganda, have emission rates of only 0.1 metric tons per person.
In a bid to cut global emissions of greenhouse gases, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997. Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emission trading if they maintain or increase emissions.
Under the agreement, the industrialized countries are supposed to reduce their collective emissions by 5.2% of the level of 1990.
China, India and other developing countries were not given any numerical limitation because they were not the main contributors to the greenhouse gas emissions during the industrialisation period that is believe to be causing today’s climate change.
The Kyoto Protocol was officially put into force on February 16, 2005. A total of 166 countries have agreed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which make up for more than 55% of the greenhouse gases released into our atmosphere.
There are still 30 countries which have not yet adopted the protocol. The US and Australia have said they would not ratify it. They argue that the fact that China and India are not following the treaty is unfair, and that reducing greenhouse gases will make their people lose jobs.
Twenty-four countries have neither signed nor ratified the treaty. Four of them - Brunei, St. Kitts and Nevis, Tonga and Sierra Leone - are Commonwealth countries.
The treaty expires in 2012, and international talks began in May this year on a future treaty to succeed the current one.
Poor countries, particularly in Africa, still refuse to accept any targets, arguing that they bear the brunt of global warming, yet they are the least responsible for it. At a recent African Union summit, President Yoweri Museveni, declared climate change an act of aggression by the rich world against the poor one, similar to the slave trade and colonisation – and demanded compensation.
“The Western countries should reduce their emissions. We are not the contributors, we are the victims,†said also South Africa’s Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, at a summit in Addis Ababa in January.
If the predictions of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, hold true, climate change may have a graver effect on Africa than on any other continent.
It predicts a minimum 2.5°C increase in temperature in Africa by 2030. Dry lands bordering the deserts may get drier; wetlands bordering the rainforests may get wetter.
The panel suggests the supply of food in Africa will be “severely compromised†by climate change, with crop yields in danger of collapsing in some countries.
Between 75m and 250m Africans, out of the 800m now living in sub-Saharan Africa, may be short of water. Vegetative cover will recede and an estimated 600,000 square kilometres of cultivable land may be ruined.
“In the past 30 years, we have seen some of the worst weather and disasters, which impact on African economies as they are heavily dependent on agriculture,†said Abdoulaye Kignaman-Soro, head of the African Centre for Meteorological Application in Development.