Living in an interconnected world

High government officials and top climate scientists assembled in Berlin last week to adopt a 24-page UN report calling for drastic action to curb climate change.

The UN report says that the international community is running out of time to cut down on the use of highly polluting fuel and is poised to violate the 2010 commitment to stay below the limits agreed as necessary to prevent global warming.

The UN report calls on nations to impose drastic curbs on the green house emissions in order to honour the pledge made four years ago to reduce emissions in a way that ensures that global temperatures do not rise by more than 2OC above preindustrial levels.

It also points out that temperatures have already risen by 0.8OC, which is worrisome and requires mitigating measures.

The Stockholm Resistance Centre has come to the conclusion that “the window is shutting very rapidly on the 2 degree target”, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that under present trends, the planet would be 3.7 to 4.8 degrees warmer by 2100, a level many scientists say could be catastrophic.

The UN report is proposing a rapid shift to low-carbon sources of energy, including renewable, such as wind and solar, and when necessary, greater reliance on nuclear energy and clean fossil fuels.

As is, low-carbon sources are accountable for only 17 per cent of the world’s total energy supplies; they must increase to no less than 51 per cent if the world hopes to reverse the tide of global warming.

For many nations, especially emerging economies, the choice is between economic growth and the urgent need to curb global warming.

Big industrial nations such as China and India are among the major pollutants; they claim that at this stage in their development, they cannot afford to shift to clean fossil fuel.

But economic concerns should not blind the world to the bigger cost exacted by climate change, such as droughts, floods, rising sea levels, changes in the weather pattern and damage to the habitats of many species.

We live in an interconnected world and what affects low-lying lands will eventually affect the entire globe.

Life and the survival of Planet Earth must top all other considerations.