The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the parties (CMP7) to the Kyoto Protocol will be held in Durban, South Africa by the end of this month.
Climate change has been put forward as critical issue on the international agenda from the 80’s (Franz and Wendy , 1997), since then governments from all around the world are discussing common goals to try to “stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system“ (www.cop17-cmp7durban.com). Although the intent is noble, political talks about actual and technical agreements on CO2 reduction have been pretty sterile in the last few years, with the Copenhagen conference of 2009 failure in mind many journalist and critics are talking about the Durban summit as the “the last chance” for the currently expiring Kyoto protocol to be renewed and many other environmental issues to be addressed.
The North-South divide on environmental issues is well known, one tells the other that they should cut their CO2 emissions and pay for damaging the environment. However more specifically for historical difference of development growth the divide reside in the fact that the developing countries ask developed nations, with their long history of industrialisation, to take responsibility for climate change and that poorer countries should not be required to make binding commitments, although for example China is the second biggest polluter in the world. Developed countries such as Canada or Japan instead argue that the biggest polluters (independently from their level of development) should also commit to some legal constraints arguing that otherwise any agreement is inherently useless for climate change. Around these sensible topics, the Copenhagen conference almost collapsed. Cancun meeting of 2010 had saved the UN multilateral process (Van de Merwe, 2011) whether the world is waiting for the Durban conference to do something binding and realistic on the environmental front.
Independently from what it is discussed or held against in these international meetings often ruled by realpolitik of securing each other’s national interests on the international arena instead of working in a cooperative way it is interesting to notice what is currently happening at the domestic level on the issue of climate change. Surprisingly, (or not, it depends from your point of view) developing countries seem to lead the way! (Dehejia, 2011, Climate Connection, 2011)
The World Bank clearly states that developing countries are the ones being more hit by climate change phenomenon such as droughts, floods, sea level rise etc… (World Bank, 2010). On this front in fact developing countries are very active although often constrained by a lack of financial, technological and human resources. Despite these important concerns last year World Bank’s report (2010) found out that developing countries world wide are very much implicated in taking actions towards climate change. The Latin America and Caribbean Region for example developed an IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) portfolio of more than 180 country-led activities with climate change adaptation and mitigation (World Bank, 2010).
China for example is one of the most advanced countries in the production of clean technologies (ShangaiDaily, 2011). It is also currently acting energetically in shutting down outdated carbon intensive factories and starting to cut its industry reliance on fossil fuels, such actions are well beyond those taken in developed country such as Australia for example (Morton, 2010). In a survey conducted in 2010, developing countries population such as those of Brazil, S. Korea, Turkey, India and Kenya were between the top 10 countries identifying that Climate change is a serious or very serious problem whether US population was one of the least concerned (Pew Research Center, 2010).
The long held belief that developing countries are ignoring environmental consequences in order to focus on growth is therefore to be put into perspective, without generalizing, however it is true that in the last years many developing countries have been taking greater action towards climate change than many developed countries more focused on the economic downturns of the past years. The climate change discourse often waved by developed countries in developing countries in a top down approach is not what is happening anymore. Developing countries are starting to be well aware of the catastrophic consequences of climate change and are acting against it! Of course the political weight developing countries have (except for big economies such as those of China, India and Brazil) is very low on the international arena, but as long that efforts are being made worldwide and that a collective awareness is rising globally from the bottom and from the most vulnerable countries it is a good sign for future actions to be taken and probably to be brought up where decisions in a not so distant future (we hope) will be made.
By: Giorgia Donin
Photo courtesy of Luciano Micallef
References:
Cop 17- CMP7, United Nations Climate Change Conference 2011, Durban-South Africa.
Climate Connections, 2011, New Figures Show Developing Countries Are Leading Rich Countries on Cutting Emissions.
Dehejia V, 2011, The Developing World, Leading on Climate Change? The New York Times. Available at: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/the-developing-world-leading-on-climate-change/
Franz and Wendy , 1997, The Development of an International Agenda for Climate Change: Connecting Science to Policy, Discussion Paper E-97-07, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Morton A, 2010, Sorry state of play when China leaves us for dead on climate.
Pew Research Center, 2010, Obama more popular Abroad than at home, Global Image of US continues to benefit. Available at: http://pewglobal.org/files/2011/04/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Spring-2010-Report2.pdf
Shangai Daily, 2011, China leading the world in climate change battle.
Van Der Merwe C., 2011, Durban meeting should highlight effect of climate change on Africa. Available at: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/durban-meeting-should-highlight-effect-of-climate-change-on-africa-2011-03-07
World Bank, 2010, Developing Countries Ratcheting Up Action on Climate Change.
More information at:
BBC, http://ht.ly/7ffhk
Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/03/climate-talks-china-developing-countries