THE biggest story in the coming two weeks will not be Afghanistan, Iraq or even Palestine. And it will not revolve around the doldrums associated with the failings of the global financial markets, or the conflagrations of ethnic and religious conflicts around the world. Not that these stories and others will go away, but the fact that the Copenhagen summit on global climate change is finally taking place at this crucial stage, with such high-level media spotlight, is definitely a story worth following.
But it is fair to say that for a region, such as ours, enmeshed by a myriad of political, social and economical challenges, staving off the specter of a new war, while trying to cope with the aftershocks of two regional ones, it becomes a luxury to worry about climate change, the green-house effect and the possibility of a major environmental disaster hitting us soon.
But that is not an excuse, because the environmental challenge is universal. The Copenhagen summit was dubbed by some as the last attempt to save our planet. Whether this culminates as pure hubris or humanity’s moment of truth, the reality rests somewhere in between. No place on Earth is immune from the calamites of global warming and its effects on climate change. We all bear witness to Mother Nature’s perturbed and moody manifestations — droughts, floods, the melting of the ice caps, the rise in sea levels, the dying oceans, the disappearing woodlands, the fluctuating temperatures and the ferocious hurricanes. It is no longer acceptable to say that man and his actions are innocent of these chaotic swings. So far there is ample scientific evidence to support the accusation that human activities have triggered nature’s extreme vicissitudes.
That conviction is the reason why heads of state, leaders and experts are meeting in the Danish capital to come up with a work plan to drastically reduce carbon emissions and promote ways to adopt clean renewable energy sources. If our planet is to be spared a cataclysmic fate, all countries must agree on a way to achieve that goal. The time is ripe, politically if not economically. But it is a challenge that must be surmounted if we are to think of the prospects that await future generations.
The global climate crises have become a unifying cause for all nations, simply because the effects of an environmental catastrophe will spare no one. Today the global climate challenge goes beyond carbon emission and the plundering of tropical forests. It coincides with the biggest financial trial the world is facing in the post-globalization era. Striking a deal between the developed and the developing economies of this world, to launch a plan to save our planet from an environmental calamity, will be a harbinger for a universal review of the economic values by which we live. The biggest polluters are also the largest economies of this world; namely the US, China and India. The UN is asking for a 40 percent decrease in carbon emissions by 2020, if not before. To achieve this, the world’s most active economies will have to undergo massive structural changes. This means billions of dollars in investments, but most importantly it will require adopting new means of production, which in turn will herald the arrival of new social and economic ways of life.
The economies of both China and India have been growing at exponential rates. With over a billion inhabitants each any change in existing production methods will engender social and political change. The US, which is probably the biggest polluter of all, will have to undergo a revolution to be able to change its mode of production, which in effect will alter the basic tenets of its socioeconomic structure.
In between lie developing and underdeveloped countries of this world, many of which will have to sacrifice a lot to adapt to the needs of a new global environmental system.
Most will not be able to afford the cost of transition and this is why developing countries are considering setting up an international fund to help countries bear the cost of meeting the requirements of a global agreement on carbon emission reduction.
It all sounds a bit frivolous; that world nations will somehow adhere to a strict plan to bring global carbon emissions to a certain level within a deadline. The irony of it all is that few are actually calling for a complete makeover of the global economic structure, which is the primary cause for our planet’s ailments.
Globalization has become a controversial term; embedding a scheme for a global takeover by multinational corporations whose chief concern is to multiply profits, utilize cheaper sources of raw materials and manipulate cheaper work force, at any cost. Unless this structure is fundamentally amended, it is difficult to perceive a universal commitment to meet the targets of the climate summit.
— Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist and political commentator based in Jordan.
