The Copenhagen climate summit to be held in the Danish capital in the second week of December seems to be heading for a crash landing, with both the developed and developing countries unable to reach an agreement. Danish prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen has suggested a politically and not a legally binding agreement.
Stalemate at Copenhagen would not mean the end of the world, but it means that even on issues where there is a consensus — everyone who counts in the poor as well as rich countries is agreed that there is a climate crisis which cannot be ignored — the willingness to work together is missing.
While this is to be decried, there is no wishing away the harsh reality that political leaders do not have the support of their people to take major decisions. This is so because not enough has been done to educate the general public. What the green activists have managed to do is to place the climate issue on the global agenda. The next step lies with the politicians to take it to the people.
The poor countries argue that the rich countries which have been the main polluters should help the others with financial aid and technology to change to green technologies and achieve curbs on carbon emissions. The rich want the rest of the world, especially emerging economies like China and India, to share the burden of transiting to an international green regime.
US president Barack Obama’s statement that even the politically binding agreement to be reached at Copenhagen should become immediately operative does not sound convincing. The leaders of the world it would seem are not able to look beyond their political compulsions. This is not to deny or decry them.
The harsh truth is that there is a fear in both rich and poor countries that curbs on carbon emissions would mean curbs on economic growth. This triggers the fear in the rich countries that they would lose their affluence, and in the poor countries that they can never leave their poverty behind.
What the leaders and their army of scientific advisers will have to do is to find a way to explain that an environment-friendly economic growth would create more jobs and not less and that it is ensures sustainable development. The issue of climate has to be turned into one of economic wellbeing, which is understood by all rather than an intangible apocalypse. Once the people understand the issue, the politicians will fall in line.
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