Mientras el mundo lucha contra la recesión, no debemos olvidar el cambio climático


Autor : Kemal Dervis

Fecha : 11 February 2009

Actualmente se ha confirmado el vínculo entre la actividad humana y el cambio climático. No se sabe a ciencia cierta cómo evolucionarán los procesos físicos que intervienen en las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y los cambios climáticos de nuestro planeta, pero estos procesos no son fáciles de revertir, y bien podrían ser irreversibles. A largo plazo podrían tener efectos catastróficos y cuanto más esperemos, mayores serán los riesgos. Es por eso que debemos intensificar nuestras iniciativas para mitigar el cambio climático, como una forma de prevención. Ahora sabemos sin ningún atisbo de duda que el cambio climático tendrá un impacto negativo mayor y más inmediato en los más pobres del mundo. Nuestra preocupación por el desarrollo y la reducción de la pobreza, plasmada en los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio, impone la mitigación urgente del cambio climático para reducir las amenazas a las perspectivas de desarrollo de los más vulnerables, así como la adopción de medidas para ayudar a adaptarse a los que ya están afectados.

 

Para mitigar el cambio climático debemos reducir drásticamente las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero en las próximas dos o tres décadas, comenzando inmediatamente. Esto exige transformaciones fundamentales de nuestras economías basadas en el carbono. Esta tarea podría parecer especialmente difícil ahora que el mundo se enfrenta con la crisis económica más grave de las últimas generaciones. No obstante, creo que la complicada situación económica actual no es una razón para demorar las acciones en materia de clima. Representa, en cambio, una oportunidad singular para revitalizar nuestra respuesta.

 

Para contrarrestar la recesión y reactivar el crecimiento se está considerando adaptar o poner en práctica grandes expansiones fiscales. El Dedicar parte del aumento del gasto público a las inversiones y los empleos que protejan el medio ambiente verde se compensa a corto plazo-contrarrestando la caída del consumo y de las inversiones privadas-pero al mismo tiempo contribuye a la transición a economías de bajo consumo de carbono. Muchos comparten esta idea y ya se está incorporando en muchos planes de estímulo económico. Por ejemplo, el plan cuya adopción se está considerando actualmente en los Estados Unidos asigna recursos a modernizar la red de energía, convertir edificios públicos y viviendas para que tengan mayor rendimiento energético, aumentar la producción de energía renovable y mejorar el transporte público masivo y la red ferroviaria para reducir el consumo de gasolina. La propuesta de estímulo de la Comisión Europea contiene disposiciones semejantes. El conjunto de medidas de estímulo económico de China también asigna recursos al mejoramiento de la eficiencia energética y la modernización de la red de electricidad.

 

Así pues, aunque estas iniciativas podrían ser más ambiciosas y estar mejor coordinadas internacionalmente, lo cierto es que se está aprovechando la oportunidad de utilizar la respuesta a la crisis económica para impulsar nuestras iniciativas para reducir las emisiones.

 

Pero esto no bastará. Los encargados de la formulación de políticas deben garantizar que en la 15ª Conferencia de las Partes en la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático que se celebrará en Copenhague las inversiones que se realicen en estos tiempos tan difíciles no se desperdicien, velando por un compromiso de largo plazo con la mitigación del cambio climático.

 

Los estímulos fiscales contracíclicos no pueden garantizar la eficacia y rentabilidad de largo plazo de estas inversiones en la mitigación del cambio climático. Nuestras economías sólo mantendrán un compromiso de largo plazo destinado a reducir drásticamente las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero si aplicamos políticas que garanticen incentivos y financiación firme y previsible para mitigar el cambio climático. A fin de lograrlo, los precios en nuestras economías deben emitir las señales adecuadas a los particulares y a las empresas para orientar sus decisiones sobre consumo e inversiones hacia la reducción de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. Esto significa que los precios deben comenzar a reflejar la totalidad de los costos sociales de emitir gases de efecto invernadero, así como los beneficios de optar por tecnologías de bajo consumo de carbono.

 

El mundo espera que la 15ª Conferencia de las Partes que se celebrará en Copenhague se traduzca en un pacto mundial amplio, ambicioso, equitativo y sostenible en cuanto a su aplicación técnica y los procesos políticos en las naciones soberanas. Aunque ya se han instituido algunos mecanismos para el comercio de carbono, entre otros en el marco del Protocolo de Kioto y la Unión Europea, es indispensable que se ejecuten nuevas iniciativas para fijar el precio del carbono de forma eficaz y justa (reflejando el principio de obligaciones comunes aunque diferenciadas acordado en la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático).

 

Hay varias alternativas para la fijación del precio del carbono, entre éstas, los mecanismos de límites máximos y comercio, impuestos sobre el carbono, o una combinación de ambos. Las opciones que fijan el precio del carbono y al mismo tiempo reducen la volatilidad podrían ser particularmente convenientes, en especial en vista de la elevada volatilidad de los precios de los combustibles fósiles de los últimos meses. En el contexto de esta volatilidad extrema, los cambios en las prioridades de inversión y en el comportamiento en favor de actividades con una menor emisión de gases de efecto invernadero podrían revertirse o ni siquiera comenzar. Un impuesto variable según el contenido de carbono de los combustibles fósiles, que aumente cuando los precios bajan y baje automáticamente cuando los precios suben, sería un instrumento que fijaría el precio del carbono y al mismo tiempo reduciría la volatilidad para el usuario de combustibles fósiles. A largo plazo, un costo más estable para el usuario tiene ventajas tanto para los consumidores como para los productores de combustibles fósiles. Una volatilidad excesiva crea dificultades en la planificación de inversiones e ineficiencias en el uso de los recursos de combustibles fósiles.

 

Todo mecanismo para la fijación del precio del carbono debe tener en cuenta que los países en desarrollo puedan satisfacer sus necesidades energéticas sin poner en riesgo su crecimiento económico y las iniciativas de reducción de la pobreza. Debe prestarse apoyo a los países en desarrollo mediante recursos suficientes, habida cuenta de sus enormes necesidades de mejor infraestructura y acceso a la energía. Un programa sufragado por donantes para financiar los costos adicionales de elegir las tecnologías menos contaminantes disponibles asegurará que se satisfagan esas necesidades de desarrollo de forma coherente con las iniciativas de mitigación del cambio climático. El programa podría financiarse en parte mediante los ingresos potenciales generados en los países ricos tras la puesta en funcionamiento de mecanismos de fijación del precio del carbono: la subasta de permisos de emisión en sistemas de límites máximos y comercio, los impuestos sobre el carbono o ambos.

 

Los encargados de la formulación de políticas están obteniendo resultados al abordar la crisis económica al tiempo que mantienen sus compromisos con la lucha contra el cambio climático. El mundo espera que ese compromiso se mantenga en Copenhague. El programa incluye muchas cuestiones, entre otras, normas de eficiencia y subsidios directos para nuevas tecnologías. Una estrategia común debería incluir nuevos mecanismos de financiación innovadores tanto para la mitigación como para la adaptación en los países en desarrollo. No obstante, la fijación eficaz, justa y previsible del precio del carbono por medio de una combinación de mecanismos de límites máximos y comercio y otras formas de tributación sobre el carbono, deberá ser la principal prioridad del programa.

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6 comentarios

Che Thuy Nhu

Fecha : 12 November 2009, 04:30

To all participants in the Forum
My daily observation show that the using of energy create so much C02 .
We need review all energy around us and think how to use it better ? Use more solar energy for dry clothes, foods, rice ... use win energy for light .
CO 2 in Factories and Industrial zone belong to government management .
We will control the energy in family : motobycycle, kitchen, car, and traditional habits .
In Vietnam 1 and 15 ( lunar caledar ) ,every month poeple pray and burn so much paper for died people
paper -money, paper clothes , paper house, paper car, paper bycycle .
We suggest the government control should give the guide to printing centers to choose the lay -out with big money value so people will burn less paper .
How about traditional habits in your's country ?
Let share
Thank you .

ivo

Fecha : 07 September 2009, 15:03

Hi,

I would like to introduce you one vision about how to tackle Climate Change consequences, as part of a bigger mechanism, and to hear your opinion regarding its feasibility.

Basics:
1. We experience very heavy economic crisis affecting many types of business and millions of people.
2. Many scientists conclude that the economic consequences from the worsening environmental situation resulting from climate change will be even heavier. For instance: the financial loses from just one hurricane are measured in hundreds of billions of dollars.
3. Energy issue and its multiple aspects "weight" more and more: growing needs, prices, abundance, political independence, degree of pollution, etc.

Unprecedented situation requires unprecedented steps. In this relation, I would like to ask you kindly to consider the possibilities described in Desert Ice Project - http://www.deserticeproject.com

There you will find a description of the project aimed to fight global warming (and many other related global problems like desertification / drought, food and water shortage, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, illegal immigration, terror, violence and conflicts, etc.) by global, complex measures - global initiative / network of local focused solutions to specific regions.
If the situation is so bad and even going worse, we must not exclude any alternative.

The emphasis is on the belief that basically we can react to this knot of problems in two key ways:
1. By intensive greening (more trees and leafs - more absorbed CO2, preserved moisture/Water, more stable soil, more jobs, more own produced food by the locals, more income and profits, more stable economies and more well living people, improved security, etc.). This step alone won't help, because industrial pollution will go on.
2. By sophisticated filtering and energy efficient systems radically reducing heat-trapping gases that flow in the atmosphere – all shaped in one international system of standards, which does not allow one to take unfair advantage compared to the others. Only limiting our greenhouse emissions (CCS techniques alone) won't help, because desertification, drought, water/food shortage and following social problems will continue. So, there must be applied both methods.

This is a large economic initiative that will mobilize many sectors of business - engineering, construction, banking, security, education, agriculture, science, etc. DIP includes large infrastructure projects, that will attract large contractors, and long chain of subcontractors; taking credits; reconsidering ideas that were underestimated so far. For instance: directing resources to "green" production, let say solar panels will open a lots of new jobs in this sector, and this will lower the prices, which will make these panels more accessible by more people. And then the government may oblige business and households for their massive usage - for every car / building roof, for every cell phone and laptop, etc.

Unlike the geo-engineering projects this operation is the most natural one. It only reverses the "negative geo-engineering" that we already did to some places in our planet - deforestation, pollution, too much land used for grazing, etc. Many of its stages are applied already in different parts of the world. They just need to be connected in one system.

Many requirements set by environmentalists seem to be too expensive from the economists' point of view. And the opposite - what industry and business want is often unacceptable by the green. This project tries to find the crossing point between, and it should be assessed by both sides.

We are almost 7 billion (mankind will pass this threshold at 2012), and except the 2 billion people that struggle every day for basics like water and food, the most of the rest want to live the movie version of the American way of life. Not to mention that we need 2 more planets like Earth to feed our consumer needs (greed?).

Every problem is an opportunity in disguise. This is a chance for us, not just for solving the current triple E3 (Environment-Energy-Economy) crisis, but to put international relations / co-operation into a new level.

I hope that this might be interesting for you from your perspective, and that the proposed measures could initiate a serious discussion.

Thank you for your time.
Looking forwards to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Ivaylo Avramov
Bulgaria

P.S. Latest (seemingly unrelated) news about the Wilkins ice shelf breaking off from the Antarctic Peninsula, the concentration of economic interests (military presence) around both polar areas, and the insecurity of Food/Energy/other resources' prices, reminds us that we are running out of time.

Che Thuy Nhu

Fecha : 11 June 2009, 11:22

To all participants .
This year Hanoi is very hot , in June weather up to 37 oC and forecast to 45 oC .Never in my life the weather is ho tlike this , over body temperature .
In some places electricity is cut off .
Poor can't pay for using air -coordinator .
Children ill because of hot weather
Old persons complain about hot .
We don't know : what to to ? We put the green tree any where, where we can .This is good solution .
Thank you

J.Kelvyn Richards

Fecha : 10 April 2009, 16:03

Financial crash, population crises, climate change. What sort of future?

Scenarios of disaster.

2009: a global financial crash.

* Banks and investment funds had gambled on 'bad investments', generating 'bad loans' or toxic assets - loans that would never be repaid.
*The loss of 33% of GDP, reduced value of global companies such as Toyota, General Motors, Honda, Ford, Panorama, Sony, General Electric.
*The bankruptcy of major banks and investment funds e.g. Lehman Brothers, American Insurance Group, Fannie Mae, Northern Rock, Halifax, Nationwide, Fortis, Royal Bank of Scotland. Bear Stearns.
*The bankruptcy of countries who borrowed too much on easy dollar credit e.g. Iceland, Ireland, Austria, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, the UK, Ukraine, Russia.
*Governments, local and national, have lost their investments in derivatives and swaps.
* Governments, local and national, have no access to credit, and are unable to generate the cash to run any services – social, medical, transport.
*Millions of workers laid off and unemployment levels rising across the
world.
* The G8, the G20, the World Bank, the Central Banks, the IMF, all bailing out the world financial system so as to re-establish 'liquidity' to the tune of $15 trillion:
*the nationalizing of the debts/losses, but privatizing the profits.
* How long will the 'crash' last? 2010? 2020? 2030?
*Economists are predicting that we are witnessing system changes which may take ten to twenty years to work through. Nobody seems to know or are unwilling to say.

2009: One billion people starving out of 5.5 billion trying to survive on $10 a day.

* The world's population is 6.8 billion, of which 5.5 billion are trying to survive on less than $10 a day.
*The World Food Programme announced in Jan 2009 that over one billion people were starving.
*The World Health Organisation declares that up to 11 million children die in a year.
*Millions of adults and children in the developing world die of starvation, malnutrition, lack of water, lack of sanitation, disease.
* 20% of the world population will struggle to survive.
* This struggle will be made worse by the continuing high food prices, in the face of the expansion of industrial farming, in particular biofuels.
*During the crisis any cash that may have gone for 'aid and development', and the alleviation of the poor, has gone to the relief of the wealthy!

2009: Climate Change

*The publication of reports on Climate Change by various agencies revealed for the first time that climate warming is accelerating and is likely to do so for the foreseeable future, irrespective of what human communities do to control emission of pollutants!
* We have to accept that it is happening……for whatever reason!
*Ice in the Arctic Sea forms only in the winter, and Antarctica ice shelfs disappear. Already, the Wilkins ice shelf has broken away.
* Glaciers and snow fields in the mountains of the world are disappearing.
* Global sea levels are rising.
* The subtropical zones moving north and south, converting grasslands into deserts and making cattle rearing in central Africa and South America more difficult.
* Plants and animals, birds and insects moving north and south in greater numbers to find suitable environments, and diseases such as malaria become common place all over the world.
* Extreme weather events are more dramatic: the droughts across south China, Sept.2008; the forest fires in the southern Meditteranean 2008; and in New South Wales, and South Australia, Jan-Feb 2009; the cyclones in Queensland; the heavy rains and floods in the summer, in the UK, and in the winter in France and Spain; extensive snow storms across Canada and the US, Jan/Feb/March 2009.


2030: changes in the economic balance
* the 'developed world' is in recession, plagued by inflation.
* the countries who 'printed money' have currencies that are almost worthless.
* USA, UK, Europe, Japan: run nationalized banks, operating according to regulated objectives.
* Cash-rich countries, such as China, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, the Emirates, Venezuela, Nigeria, Bolivia, have bought up major corporations in Europe and the USA.
* the economic balance has changed, and the so-called 'developed' world is dependent upon these 'cash economies'.
*China with its communist capitalism is the richest country in the world in opposition to India and the USA.
* China controls all the principal sources of minerals across the world.
* China, the principal communist government, controls the capitalist world! Victory for communism!

2030: Population

*the world's population is 7.5 billion.
* the climate changes have impacted on agriculture and led to starvation and death of up to 2 billion people.
* malnutrition, and disease causes death of up to 50 million children.
* more rigorous birth control measures in China and India; more programmes of birth control in Africa and South America.
* more and more people living in cities….living in the slums, directly suffering from flooding, lack of sanitation, and water borne diseases, including the plague.
* USA, Japan, Europe, Russia have 60% elderly: and a decreasing working population.
* Young working populations are in Africa, and Asia, global migration.
* faced by lack of access to funds, many governments, of 'failed states' corruptly direct these monies to politicians and civil servants.
*the people dependent upon aid, fail: their businesses collapse; education/health projects stop.

2030: climate change

* up to 10C increase in global temperatures.
* the global atmosphere has more than 450 particles per million and there is increasing heat retention.
* rising sea levels have led to flooding, and extension of marshes and deltas; * migration of people from coastal areas across the globe;
* stagnation of rivers, and inland flooding leading to failure of sewage flows.
* most prosperous countries have developed water management systems, along with flood control barrages.
* the increasing temperatures have seen the spread of diseases such as bird flu, ebola, cholera, the plague, lyme disease, TB, yellow fever, sleeping sickness to most of the world, along with HIV and malaria.
* an increase in violent storms, leading to extensive damage to buildings, farms, forests.

see www.kelvynrichard.com: Social Ecology-a new morality


Do you want to offer other scenarios?

????? ?????

Fecha : 03 March 2009, 17:18

excellent ,Thanks for the post

Sophia Sim

Fecha : 26 February 2009, 08:37

First of all, I'd like to extend my sincere appreciation to Mr. Kemal Dervis, for his thoughtful and prompt analysis of the current status regarding the Climate Change. Indeed, the world is finally gearing up toward the full recognition of the dire situation and its solution under the favorable atmosphere generating from the leadership of both the world parliament, the UN and the super power congress, the US. Taking due account of the COP 15 in Copenhagen, I firmly believe that the political momentum will surely be gathered once again that would more or less surpass the extent of Kyoto Protocol.
The major challenge and goal for all of us at stake here will rest on drawing the full participation as well as cooperation from the main culprits of the gas emissions around the world, some of them being the world's super powerhouses. This time, no budging or bungling should be allowed as an excuse for those concerned, as the world seems to be nearing the brink of the final bottom line day by day. The somber acknowledgement that no sustainable growth can be achieved at the cost of natural destruction must be widespread among the world leaders to alert their people to act with boldness and determination.
However, in regard to the pricing of the carbon, there's still a lingering doubt as to how much willing the metropole countries would be toward giving aids and hands to the most vulnerable victims of the environmental crisis. The ironic problem with the climate change is that its victims are expected to be not the protagonist but the bystanders who don't have any faults at all. Whereas the imminent danger posed upon those innocent sufferers are mounting day in day out, the continuing reluctance of the guilty industrialized nations will likely persist in years to come, especially in terms of monetary issues. As the core member of young generation who will have to bear the brunt of the consequences of this major crisis, I cannot but hopelessly pray that the day may come when those callous international leaders will finally wake up to the urgent calling across the planet.

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