Climate Change

Climate change, with its far-reaching impacts on health, agriculture, water resources and biodiversity, poses one of the biggest environmental threats that the world is currently faced with. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was one of the important treaties signed at the Earth Summit held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Since then, evidence in support of human-induced climate change has mounted. The third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released in 2001, confirmed that human activities had contributed most to global warming in the past 50 years. It also said that the 20^th century had seen unusual warming as temperature increased by about 0.6°c.

Such assessments, however, have done little to instill a sense of urgency that the existing situation demands. Most industrialised countries, which have contributed most to the problem, have been largely occupied with finding cheapest possible ways to meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. But these solutions are not necessarily the best solutions.

As a result, the Kyoto Protocol – as it is a very small step towards protecting the environment for present and future generations – has been further weakened. At best, it has some political worth, in showing the US that the protocol can live without it. Countries recently moved closer to implementing the protocol, as finer rules were agreed upon in November 2001 in Marrakech, Morocco. The protocol, in its present form, is replete with provisions allowing countries to meet commitments by doing anything apart from undertaking domestic cuts in fossil fuel use.

Despite this, the Kyoto Protocol’s entry into force remains elusive, as key industrialised countries are yet to ratify. However, the hope remains that the protocol will enter into force in time for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg in September 2002.

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