Climate Change: More political will needed

London newspaper, the Daily Telegraph environmental correspondent, Louise Gray reported that scientists agreed that if the emission of greenhouse gases could be halved by 2050, then the world temperature rises would be below the dangerous level of two degrees C (3.6 degrees F).


 A WWF report found that this will require a "green industrial revolution" by 2014, with heavy investment in green technology involving low carbon emissions and away from the use of fossil fuels. Green technology would include the utilization of  wind, solar, nuclear and clean coal.

It will also mean switching to electric cars and improving energy efficiency by insulating our homes and wasting less electricity.


The above warning comes as ministers and officials from around the world meet in London this week for the Major Economies Forum. The MEF was set up by President Obama to give ministers an opportunity to solve difficult issues before the world meets in Copenhagen in December to agree a new deal on climate change.

More pressure will be put on rich countries, including the US, to sign up to legally-binding targets to cut carbon emissions. Innovative new measures are to be formulated to reduce deforestation, including plans to pay poorer countries not to chop down trees.

The WWF said both rich and poor countries need to start investing in renewable energy and encouraging behaviour change among citizens in order to meet the targets.


Downing Street is also concerned that there is no agreement on how to finance a climate change package in developing countries.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was quoted in the Guardian today warning that floods and droughts would be a normal occurence unless governments speed up negotiations on climate change before vital talks in Copenhagen in December.The prime minister will deliver his warning to a meeting of environment ministers brought together under the umbrella of the Major Economies Forum. The 17 countries in the forum are responsible for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions.
It was pointed out that India was ready to set itself non-binding targets for cutting carbon emissions, while China said it would curb the growth of its emissions by a "notable margin" by 2020, without much specified figures.

The US special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, said developing economies must boost their efforts to curb emissions, warning it was "certainly possible" that no deal would be agreed in Copenhagen."What we need to have happen is for China and India and Brazil and South Africa and others to be willing to take what they're doing, boost it up some, and then be willing to put it into an international agreement," he said.

(Note that efforts to be made by the US is not mentioned. It is the US that had not ratified the previous protocols to reduce carbon emissions).Developing countries on the other hand place the blame on the developed countries for failure to reduce carbon emissions and the blame game continues at the expense of Mother Earth.If these situation persists, then not much progress is expected in Copenhagen.

In Malaysia, as in many other developing countries, generally the average man in the street is not very concerned about climatic change. Attitudes have to be changed if we were to save the earth from further destruction. Although there is already a Green Technology Ministry, a Ministry to deal with climate change has not been formed.Apart from the small tremors felt when there is an earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia and heavy rain when Manila is hit by typhoons; Malaysians do not connect these events as consequences of climate change.