Climate changes must be handled now (by the rich countries)!

It seems the global warming is happening faster than expected. This is especially clear for the poor and people living on islands: 1 billion people in 100 countries. Dry land agriculture, tropical forests, fishing are affected. We see eroding coastlines, pests spreading and erratic weather patterns. The carbon footprints of these nations themselves are tiny. The biggest contribution these countries can make is through tropical forest conservation, which was excluded from the Kyoto agreement.

Private and public sector projects are starting: cleaning up degraded forest, selling new insurance to guard against climate change, consultancy on cutting footprints.

New taxes are introduced with proceeds going to climate and poverty projects. Rights to pollute are sold under cap-and-trade arrangements, later also in the US. 

The handling of climate change is becoming a business.

The actual amounts are too small, and most rich countries are not fulfilling their promises. There are more problems than money. It seems the ideas about climate change are not clear yet.

The rich countries must do more: they should be made to pay more, international law should force the rich to pay for the climate change they cause!

We need better agreements and international laws, better figures, better understanding, more money coming from the rich countries.

The first climate agreement was signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, in 2008 we had the Kyoto agreement covering some of the industrial countries – not the USA – which is expiring in 2012. Next year we have  a meeting in Copenhagen to enter into a new agreement.  The politics involved are difficult!

 

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