In search of a fair green logic

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By He Rulong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-02 07:47

Take a look at Earth at Night 2001 in NASA Scientific Visualization Studio Collection on the Internet and you will see some areas of the Earth awash with lights. They include a huge part of Europe, eastern US and Japan. The dark and darker areas are the central parts of South America, and Africa and Asia. The difference between developed and developing countries is visible even at night. And please be reminded this difference in the use of energy is not a 21st century phenomenon; it has existed since the 18th century.

If we consider the three industrial revolutions brought about by the steam engine, electricity and IT, it becomes clear the developed countries have used (and are using) far greater amounts of energy than the developing ones.

Energy helps to produce goods and improves productivity. But the use of energy also causes greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Data show the developed world emitted 95 percent of the total global GHG between the Industrial Revolution and 1950. Between 1950 and 2000, however, its share fell to 77 percent.

The world today is divided into two camps on how to cut GHG emission. While the rich countries have been fast in their attempt to shift to greener production methods, the developing countries have fallen behind. This has led the rich nations to accuse some developing countries of being less willing to create a cleaner environment.

The developing countries have trailed the developed world since the Industrial Revolution, and most of their knowledge of technology comes from their richer peers. They have had to relocate polluting industries on their land because of the international distribution of labor.

But ironically the developing nations have to sit at the negotiation table with their richer peers to find ways to cut GHG emission. That's why they have been stressing the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", as stated in major international documents on climate change. But some developed countries doubt this principle. Are they justified?

Some people may argue that the issue is not whether the developed world can accept the principle but whether the developing nations have the political resolve to make our planet a cleaner and safer place to live. But facts speak louder.

Let's take China for example. A 2007 report by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency claimed China had overtaken the US as the world's biggest GHG emitter. It's quite difficult to verify this claim. And even if it were true, China's per capita GHG emission is still low compared to the developed countries and its total adds up to more than that of the US because of its huge population. Just for the record, China's population is more than four times that of the US, and its per capita GHG emission less than one-fourth that of the US.

Between 1903 and 2003 (when China was 24 years into its reform and opening up), the country's accumulated GHG emission took only 7.6 percent of the world's total. But that didn't stop it from adopting a green philosophy for economic development. Besides laws and regulations, it formulated a National Climate Change Program in 2007, vowing to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and pollutant discharge by 10 percent by 2010. It decided to increase its ratio of renewable energy to 10 percent of the total energy consumed, too.

Acting upon the spirit of the Bali Roadmap, countries are busy working on a post-Kyoto Protocol (which expires in 1912) deal on emission cuts to be adopted at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December. Finding a plan acceptable both to the developed and the developing countries is not an easy task. For instance, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has said his country's GHG emission reduction target for 2020 is 15 percent, taking 2005 as the base year. That will be equal to only 8 percent from level of 1990, the benchmark year set by the Kyoto Protocol.

This shows that instead of the developing nations, it's some developed ones that lack the political will to cut GHG emissions to the desired level. To make matters worse, they are more than reluctant to transfer their technologies and provide financial help to developing nations to strengthen the fight against climate change. They are rather happy imposing GHG emission cut targets on the developing nations.

If this lack of political will on the part of the developed world continues, it will dampen the chances of adopting a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen. This is why Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC executive secretary, said at last month's climate change talks in Bonn that it's a long, hard way to a global climate deal. And time is running out.

The author is a doctoral scholar with the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, China University of Political Science and Law

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