'Climate change must be seen as a challenge to manage growth'

WASHINGTON: A top UN official has warned the developing nations not to consider the climate-change as a "luxury issue invented by the West", but to treat it as a "challenge to manage their economic growth".

"For many years, the developing countries saw climate change as a luxury issue that has been invented by the West which should also be solved by the West. Their overriding concern was poverty eradication. But this change has already started affecting developing nations," Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told.

"Climate change could undo many of the investments made to achieve the Millenieum Development Goals. So Climate change is actually a threat to development and not something which you can safely ignore," he added.

"The first thing is not to see this whole issue so much as an environmental challenge and emissions reduction challenge but to see it as a challenge to manage economic growth," he said, adding the world economy is going to grow and to supply the energy to fuel that economic growth over the next 25 years USD 20 trillions will be invested and if that amount is not invested wisely it will push greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent, from the down 50 per cent that the science thinks it needs to go."

"We can see the Himalyan Glaciers disappearing and we know how that is going to impact water supply both in the Indian sub continent and in China as well. You are already experiencing increased flooding in India which is climate related," the UN official maintained.

The apprehension in the developing world that international financial institutions will go after climate change issues at the expense of traditional aid projects was 'misplaced', de Boer said.

"If you look at the energy investment then actually less than one per cent of required resources is coming from international financial institutions through ODA. So that kind of money is pretty insignificant in the larger picture," he said, adding there are more things that are driving that than climate change alone.

The realisation that climate-change is already affecting the developing countries, is leading to "a change of perception" about the issue, he said.

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has calculated that we can reduce global emissions by 20 to 30 per cent by just through measures that pay themselves back quite quickly out of energy savings," he said.
 
He said that an important factor especially in a country like India which will continue to rely on coal, and coal with a very high ask content is the whole question of air quality and air pollution and what is that doing for the country's public health bill. So there are sound public health reasons for switching to cleaner technology and reducing emissions.

"There are a number of good economic reasons to economise on the use of energy leaving climate change aside."

"The main challenge in my mind is how can you engage big developing countries like China, India, Brazil to further on this issue; how can you help them to limit their growth of emissions while at the same time safe guarding goals of economic growth and poverty eradication. So above all it is a clean growth challenge," de Boer said going on to list the things a country like India can bring to the table.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already appointed a special group on climate change to identify options India has to reduce emissions in industry, transportation and agriculture. There are a number of things that India can do on its own that makes sound economic sense, de Boer said.

"There we have a very good example in the Clean development Mechanism which India makes a very active use of -- a mechanism that has already generated some USD 25 billions worth of investments in various emissions reduction projects. So it is a matter of what India could do to identify what it could do to reduce emissions on its own," he said.

India is working very hard on a national climate change strategy that not only looks at the potential to reduce emissions but also what needs to be done to adapt to the inevitable consequences of climate change. So how can you be sure that investments made in the past -- investments to eradicate poverty and to grow the economy -- are not undone as a result of climate change, the official said.

"It is a global problem that requires a global response. With China, India, Brazil, South Africa over time overtaking industrial countries in terms of their emissions, it is important to engage those major economies. But it is also true that while the emissions of a country like India may be high, India's per capita emissions are half of the average of the developing world," de Boer said.

"So India quite rightly says that we may have a lot of emissions as a country, but our country is very poor and our people's primary concerns is survival on a day to day basis, how can you expect them to act on climate change when their priority is to feed their children. That is where international cooperation is so critical so that you get North-South cooperation that does it possible for a country like India to go the extra mile," he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already appointed a special group on climate change to identify options India has to reduce emissions in industry, transportation and agriculture. There are a number of things that India can do on its own that makes sound economic sense, de Boer said.
 
"There we have a very good example in the Clean development Mechanism which India makes a very active use of -- a mechanism that has already generated some USD 25 billions worth of investments in various emissions reduction projects. So it is a matter of what India could do to identify what it could do to reduce emissions on its own," he said.

India is working very hard on a national climate change strategy that not only looks at the potential to reduce emissions but also what needs to be done to adapt to the inevitable consequences of climate change. So how can you be sure that investments made in the past -- investments to eradicate poverty and to grow the economy -- are not undone as a result of climate change, the official said.

"It is a global problem that requires a global response. With China, India, Brazil, South Africa over time overtaking industrial countries in terms of their emissions,it is important to engage those major economies. But it is also true that while the emissions of a country like India may be high, India's per capita emissions are half of the average of the developing world," de Boer said.

"So India quite rightly says that we may have a lot of emissions as a country, but our country is very poor and our people's primary concerns are survival on a day to day basis, how can you expect them to act on climate change when their priority is to feed their children. That is where international cooperation is so critical so that you get North-South cooperation that does it possible for a country like India to go the extra mile," he said.