Science Matters | October 30, 2009
By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola
The buzz around the December
UN climate summit
in Copenhagen is increasing. Some of you may be wondering what it’s all
about. Why is this one meeting so important? And does it really matter
if it succeeds or fails?
The answer is that it matters a lot, especially if we want to tackle
global warming rather than just talking and arguing about it.
Global warming is a global problem requiring global solutions. The
atmosphere doesn't stay within federal or provincial boundaries. It is
a global commons. Greenhouse gases emitted in Canadian provinces mix
with those from every other part of the world and affect everyone. A
molecule of carbon is a molecule of carbon. It has the same impact on
the environment whether it came from a smokestack in Toronto or a
taxi’s tailpipe in Kuala Lumpur.
Every nation must do its part. And each country needs reassurance that
others are also acting. We need a global agreement that is legally
binding with rules clearly outlined.
The science of climate change is evolving rapidly. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s last report is now two
years old, and the research in that report is more than four years old.
Recent scientific information shows that the impacts of climate change
are happening much more quickly than expected. The polar ice cap is
melting at an astonishing rate. Ocean levels are rising more rapidly
than predicted. And weather-related disasters are mounting.
Leading scientific institutions such as the U.S. National Academy of
Sciences, the U.K. Royal Society, and the Royal Society of Canada have
declared that current scientific information points to a need for
immediate action.
We have no time to waste. Copenhagen is our moment. In fact, two years
ago the world agreed that the Copenhagen summit would be the deadline
for forging the next global agreement to strengthen and build on the
Kyoto Protocol.
Kyoto was always considered to be the first step by industrialized
countries, whose fossil-fuel-powered growth created the problem.
Establishing the legal framework was an important part of that first
step, as were very modest emission reductions. But Copenhagen has to be
more than just another small step. Science suggests the issue is
urgent, so this step needs to be much bigger if we want our actions to
keep pace with increasing climatic changes.
Industrialized countries need to accept binding commitments to reduce
their global warming pollution much more dramatically in the next phase
of the Kyoto Protocol, after 2012. But we also need to craft a
companion treaty to Kyoto, one that lays out the kinds of actions that
major developing countries, like India and Indonesia, will take to curb
their emissions.
A
recent study (PDF)
commissioned by Global Humanitarian Forum president and former UN
secretary-general Kofi Annan indicates that 50 of the world’s poorest
countries collectively produce less than one per cent of the global
greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Yet, these very
same countries have been disproportionally affected by climate change.
Thus, an essential part of any fair climate agreement must include
support from industrialized countries to poorer nations – support in
the form of financing and clean technologies so that poorer nations can
wean themselves off fossil fuels and better adapt to the impacts of
climate change.
This principle – that rich countries like ours have filled up the
atmosphere with pollution in the course of our development, and that
it’s now our responsibility to assist less-developed countries to
follow a clean path to prosperity – is one that goes back to 1992. It
was enshrined in the Rio Convention and reiterated in Kyoto, and again
two years ago in Bali. But we have yet to meet that promise, and it is
time we did.
It is now up to our global leaders – presidents and prime ministers,
ministers of finance and environment – to be visionary, to look beyond
shorter-term political timelines and imagine a future world of security
and prosperity, where our homes and workplaces are fed by clean energy.
And it is up to global citizens to ensure that they do.
Visionary leadership requires active and engaged citizens to keep the
politicians’ feet to the fire. Your efforts have never been needed more
to help make this happen.
Photos by foreversouls & 350.org via Flickr. Creative Commons licensed.