The more the climate changes, the more the solutions remain the same. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, linked to the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention On Climate Change, promised much, but failed to deliver at a conference in South Africa because of the intransigence of leading polluters.
Almost immediately after it was reported that a “landmark agreement” had been reached in Durban, Canada announced that it had pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, one day after an update was agreed on, saying the accord won’t work.
Minister of the Environment Peter Kent said Canada was invoking its legal right to withdraw. With that there is no quarrel, but Mr Kent’s comment that “Kyoto did not represent the way forward for Canada or the world” was astonishing.
And while we welcome a concurrence, which possibly suggests a significant step forward, we still cannot join in any outright jubilation. Many leading environmentalists have pointed out that there are far too many loopholes in the Durban Platform to ensure a uniform regulatory policy.
Though participating countries have pledged to abide by their commitments to carbon emissions, the level of cuts they have announced remains, quite arbitrarily, up to their own choosing.
On the face of it this does not seem equitable, especially for developing countries that account for a very small fraction of global warming but have to suffer the heaviest costs in the face of erratic weather patterns.
In addition, any “voluntary” reductions in emissions have been given a lengthy breathing space, with a 2020 cut-off point. We believe there is need for urgency; and words alone will not do. A consensus must be fashioned that puts global environmental security before national interests.
In recent years no corner of the earth has been spared from the ravages of climate change. Glaciers and the polar caps are melting, and regions across the world are seeing alarming patterns of unusual droughts and flooding. Canada, Japan and Russia said last year they would not accept new Kyoto commitments, but Canada is the only country to repudiate it altogether.
However, one of the things coming out of the Durban Platform was the pledge that a governing body would be set up to distribute “tens of billions of dollars” to poor countries in the fight against climate change.
How it all pans out remains to be seen; but we all hope that the world’s leading powers will take the sensible route in creating a sensible path to find a global solution to climate change.
According to Mr Kent, the Kyoto Protocol does not cover the world’s largest two emitters – the United States and China – and therefore cannot work.
In his view, it is more an impediment than a solution to climate change.
