Copenhagen Conference
Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change
The World Resources
Institute (WRI) informs that
China and the United States are the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 carbon polluters, accounting together for 37.5 percent of global emissions of the six main greenhouse gases that include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The positions of these countries are key to the outcome of the Copenhagen Conference, a two-year process that aims at building a post - 2012 planet-wide treaty on tackling climate change.
On 15 November, Sunday, Asia-Pacific leaders, including the US President Barrack Obama and the Chinese President Hu Jiantao, acknowledged it would be unrealistic to reach a legally binding agreement at the December 7 -18 Copenhagen Conference expected to be represented by 192 governments.
A joint statement released on 17 November after talks between Obama and Hu reiterated support for earlier UN goals on climate change. After talks with Chinese President, Obama told journalists that the two countries wanted the December climate change Conference to culminate in a global accord that has “immediate operational effect.” He said that they agreed to take mitigation actions and stand behind the commitments; a comprehensive agreement would be an important step forward in the effort to find a solution to the world’s climate challenge. The Chinese head announced that they agreed to act on the basis of the principle of the common but differentiated responsibilities and consistent with their respective capabilities to work with other parties concerned to help produce positive outcomes out of the Copenhagen Conference.
The First World Climate Conference in 1979 urged governments to foresee and prevent potential man made changes in climate. The Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, restricting chemicals that deplete ozone layer. Although not established with climate change in mind, it has major impact on greenhouse gases emissions. In 1988, the UN set up Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to collate and analyse evidence on global warming. The first IPCC report in 1990 stated that human activities significantly added to concentrations of greenhouse gases, and documented global 0.5 degree Celsius increase in temperature over past 100 years. The UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro created Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). The developed countries agreed to cut emissions to 1990 levels. The Kyoto Protocol set binding targets for industrialised nations to reduce emissions by 5 percent against 1990 levels over period 2008-2012. But in 2001 President George W.Bush removed the US from Kyoto process. In 2007, IPCC stated that warming of climate was unequivocal and placed blame firmly on human activity.
Presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere ensure Earth’s normal temperature. This is how it happens: Sunlight enters the Earth’s atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. Then it reaches Earth’s surface. Land, water and biosphere absorb the sunlight’s energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases. This is how the earth is kept warm enough for plants, animals and humans to live. But too much of greenhouses gases will increase the Earth’s average temperature which phenomenon is termed as Global Warming. This marks rise in average temperature to more than normal level.
The consequences of global warming will endanger the living conditions on our planet, causing changes in climate - too much or too little rain, floods, rise in sea level by melting ice fields, new diseases, famine etc. If these disastrous effects are to be averted, the emission of greenhouse gases should be put down to a reasonable level. Burning fossil fuel of various types to generate power, to produce goods and to run vehicles as well as burning and decaying organic substances lead to emission of greenhouses gases like Carbon dioxide and methane.
Instead of using exhaustible and polluting fossil fuel, it is time to use renewable energy sources like wind and sunlight. It is also essential that people, particularly the rich, change their luxurious life-style, giving up their wasteful spending on goods and services that are harmful to their physical and mental well-being in course of time.
When they meet at the Conference in Copenhagen, the developed nations should agree to a solution that will restrain their lavish consumption habits and require them to help the developing nations to adopt clean technology.
