CLIMATE JUSTICE AND EMISSION CUT

Climate change is the most important global environmental challenge facing humanity with serious implications on food production, fresh water supply, eco-system and biodiversity, weather and health. Climate change due to global warming leads to rise in the sea-water levels, melting of polar ice, changing wind patterns and shortage of food. It may cause big disaster like massive flood, erosion, cyclonic strom in the coastal areas. The excessive melting of glaciers in the polar regions and Antaretica is also the consequence of this. There have been severe monsoon floods across South Asia, China, Uruguay and extreme heat waves in South Eastern Europe and Russia. Changing climatic pattern drastically affects agriculture and hence food production. Due to higher temperature and reduced rainfall, soil moisture has declined substantially. Since with higher global temperature, more water is evaporated from the oceans, average rainfall world-wide is bound to increase, but the rainfall pattern is disrupted, varying widely among regions and between times. Climate change is likely to threaten all life froms on earth including plants and animals. It poses a great threat to the functioning of our ecosystem and in the maintenance of biological diversity which maintains the natural balance of our earth. The various functions of the ecosystem are essential for continuation of human and other life forms on the planet. But the equilibrium of the eco-system is now disturbed and has put a question mark on the existence of living organisms. For the emerging economics, the negative impacts of climate change could adversely affect their rate of growth. Evidence shows that most of these changes are due to human activities which include transportation, generation of electricity, production of cement, plastics and other materials, household cooking, deforestation, aerosols, burning of fossile fuels etc. Thus, all these lead to socio-economic and ecological disaster which will seriously affect the existance of living organisms and our common future, scientific concensus has identified carbon dioxide (CO2) as the dominant green house gas and is mainly responsible for global warming and climate change. Thus, the world is facing a severe environmental crisis arising from climate change.

The issue of climate change has been widely discussed in the recent United Nations Climate Summit held in Copenhagen where about 192 countries participated. The summit urged the nations to combat climate change through emission curbing measures for which it advocated common but differentiated responsibilities. The Copenhagen Accord does not lay down any binding target for the developed nations to cut emissions beyond 2012 as demanded by the Kyoto Protocol (2005). The summit urged for common but differentiated responsibilities towards the issue by the respective countries of the world. A prominent environmental NGO, Green Peace, in its statement strongly argued that rather than coming together to secure a future for hundred of millions of people by agreeing a historic deal to avert climate chaos, the world's most powerful countries have betrayed future and current generations. Since the developed countries are the largest emitters of green house gases, so they should take the greater responsibilities in emission cut. There was no specified agreement on technology transfer (anti-polluting technology) and funding mechanism for helping developing nations. It is urged that for developing nations, emissions are for development while for the developed nations, emissions are for luxury. So, the summit insisted on the principle of "common but differentiated resposibilities" to tackle the pressing challenge of climate change. To reduce emission, developed countries are asked to provide funds and thransfer green technology to developing countries. The summit has been condemned for failing to finalise a legally binding treaty. However, despite several loopholes, the summit has successfully brought the attention of the international community about the dangers of global warming and man-made climate change and lay the foundations for international actions that are needed to counteract such changes and to ensure sustainable development in the years to come.

Climate change, no longer, remains a local issue, it now becomes a global issue. So the response towards it must be global. There is still time to avoid the worst impact of climate change. A world-wide cooperation is required to prevent futher worsening of the climate. A cost-benefit analysis of climate change reveals that though costs are large, benefits of avoiding further damage to the earth are greater. To save our blue planet and all its inhabitants from the worst impact of climate change, nations should take steps to reduce green house gases at source. Reduction of green house gases in the atmosphere calls for – using substitutes of CFCs, imposing of carbon tax, enhancing energy efficiency, emission trading, increase afforestation, switch over to non-fossile fuel sources of energy, clean development mechanism, using energy saving bulbs, going for renewable source of power like wind power and solar power, travelling by public transport and bicycles instead of cars etc. Moreover, the risks of worst impact of climate change can be substantially reduced if green house gases in the atmosphere can be stabilised. Mass awarenes campaign and counselling services should be conducted by the local NGOs of the respective countries for reducing green house gas emissions and the resultant climate change. All the nations, irrespective of their level of development, must come forward unitedly without making any differences in their approaches to tackle the growth of this problem on a war footing with a view to save the blue planet from extinction.