- President Jagdeo laments alarming disparity in commitment, ability of
rich and poor countries to fight this growing global scourge
‘If allowed to continue unabated, rice (for instance) will be grown in
Canada, US instead of the tropics’ – President Jagdeo
By Mark Ramotar
Guyana Chronicle, 14 January 2008
http://www.guyanachronicle.com
THE disparity in commitment and ability between rich and poor countries
to respond to Climate Change and its devastating effects is creating
even larger inequalities both between and within countries, according
to President Bharrat Jagdeo.
“Climate change represents possibly, over time, one of the biggest
challenges to developing countries because of their limiting capacity
to adapt or to mitigate…,” the Guyanese Head of State declared during
his address at the launch of a Farmers Magazine last week at the
Buddy’s International Hotel at Providence, East Bank Demerara.
Acknowledging that both adaptation and mitigation will cost huge sums
of money, President Jagdeo pointed out that while the commitment is
there, the national budget of a poor country like Guyana will not allow
it to meet the challenges of climate change.
“We have already seen the adverse weather patterns emerging from global
climate change. Many of us in Guyana have to live through every rainy
season with trepidation (and) we have many sleepless nights especially
during the rainy seasons,” he said, adding that this is happening
largely because of “changes and irresponsible policies taking place
elsewhere”.
According to Mr. Jagdeo, the amount of greenhouse gas that Guyana, for
instance, is contributing to the atmosphere is “so miniscule and so
negligible that if you had a graph it would not show on it (on the
graph)”.
The rich countries contribute a lot of greenhouse gases to the
atmosphere and they are major contributors to climate change but yet
still it is countries like Guyana that face the worst brunt and
consequences of this, President Jagdeo contended.
“Our budget will not allow us to meet the challenges of climate change,
especially the adverse weather conditions that we will experience in
the future unless something dramatic is done about climate change,” he
warned.
He noted that developing countries like Guyana are “struggling to
identify the resources” to flight climate change, and as such rely
heavily on donor support in this regard.
“In fact, the prediction is that if things go unabated, then the places
that will be growing rice (for instance) in the future will not be in
the tropics like Guyana and countries in the Caribbean…because the
climate is going to change in such a way that rice will be grown in New
York and Canada - places where the weather is cold.”
This, he argued, is because global warming will make the place so hot
in years to come that “the agriculture that we know will not be able to
sustain it.”
Speaking with reporters a few weeks ago, President Jagdeo stressed the
fact that Climate Change, one of the most critical global challenges of
our time, is not a “futuristic thing” but an alarming problem that is
currently occurring and which needs a committed global effort to
mitigate its devastating effects.
According to him, recent events have emphatically demonstrated the
growing vulnerability of countries around the world to climate change.
Climate change impact will range from affecting agriculture- further
endangering food security, sea-level rise and the accelerated erosion
of coastal zones, increasing intensity of natural disasters, species
extinction and the spread of vector-borne diseases.
“Everyone right across the world have recognised adverse weather
because of climate change and what is happening right now…so it is not
a futuristic thing,” President Jagdeo told reporters.
“The science is clear, and the manifestations of climate change are
clear right across the world,” he declared.
THE JAGDEO INITIATIVE ON CLIMATE CHANGE
In an effort to fight against climate change, the Guyanese Head of
State has introduced an initiative on climate change.
The Jagdeo initiative was first introduced at the Commonwealth Finance
Ministers’ Meeting in October last year and then again at the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Business forum in Kampala, Uganda, in
November 2007.
President Jagdeo’s initiative calls for developed countries to give
market-based incentives to developing countries, who can offer their
rainforest in service of the world’s fight against climate change.
It is a known fact that developed nations are guilty of contributing
the most carbon dioxide emissions to the environment, the leading
contributing factor to global warming.
In fact, the United States alone is said to be contributing 25% of
carbon dioxide emissions.
Meanwhile, the 2007 annual United Nations Human Development Report that
was released in November last year, warned that climate change could
have a disastrous impact for the world's poorest people and reverse any
gains made in poverty reduction, nutrition, health and education.
The world's 2.6 billion people living on less than US$2 daily have
contributed least to global emissions. But they are "paying a high
price for the actions of others," said Claes Johansson of the UN
Development Programme, UNDP, which prepared the report.
The potential toll on humans of climate change has been understated,
the report concludes, pointing to meteorological shocks such as
droughts, floods and storms, whose intensity and frequency are
increasing, adding to existing poverty and inequality.
"For millions of people, these are events that offer a one-way ticket
to poverty and long-run cycles of disadvantage," the UNDP said.
The UN agency recommended a "twin track" approach merging mitigation
efforts to limit global warming this century with bolstered global
cooperation on adaptation measures.
For rich nations to help poor ones achieve this goal, the report
proposes a Climate Change Mitigate Facility at a cost of US$25 billion
to US$50 billion per year to finance development of low-carbon energy
systems in developing nations.
"Therefore, developed nations have a historic responsibility to cut
emissions, to climate-proof their growth and to invest in efforts that
can help prevent catastrophic reversals in human development," said
Johansson.
Developing countries, in turn, must do their part to reduce their own
emissions, but cannot do so without the help of wealthier nations,
Johansson observed.
The report, "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided
world," was released a week prior to the opening of the UN Climate
Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.
No comments:
Post a Comment