Unequal sharing of benefits and burdens

A number of delegates from Latin America, Africa and Asia addressed the conference, explaining how developing and emerging countries are dealing with climate change and its impacts. They described the situation in their home countries. Moises Benessene, Director of Mozambique’s National Meteorological Service, painted a gloomy picture: around 60% of the population lived below the poverty line and people did not have the means to protect themselves against weather catastrophes. Benessene continued: “The consequences of natural catastrophes are disastrous for poor countries.” Some help was available in the form of national or regional disaster-prevention schemes like the flood early-warning system set up along the river Búzi in Mozambique by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the Munich Re Foundation. In the long term, climate change poses a very real threat to economic development. Benessene pointed out that lower precipitation levels would hit agricultural yields. This could seriously undermine the objective of reducing the number of those below the poverty line to 45% by 2009.

Conditions in Benin, where around 70% of the population live off the land, are similar. As in other countries south of the Sahara, rainfall is often the only source of water. Climate change is making itself felt in higher or lower seasonal rainfall. Lack of reservoirs and water management inadequacies are causing countries to sink deeper into poverty. Consequently, in Benin, the production of cotton, one of the country’s chief exports, has fallen dramatically in the last few years. Money for food, education and health is in short supply. Increasingly, the different population groups are in dispute over land and water, whilst towns and cities are under growing pressure to absorb still more people.

The situation is particularly serious in Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, where figures show that four million people were threatened with famine in 2005. Experts estimate that the country’s water resources have been halved in the last 35 years. The rains come too late or too early for the season, making it difficult for farmers to decide what to sow and when. Torrential rainfall brings its own problems: Burkina Faso was hit by a record number of floods in 2007, which caused major damage and provided ideal conditions for the spread of malaria and other diseases.

Delegates from the countries concerned were insistent that they too have a right to economic development, not least in view of their historically low emission levels. Their climate change priorities are focused on appropriate adaptation measures. In order to sensitise people to environmental issues, the governments of the countries concerned are organising awareness and education campaigns. However, experts believe that, up to now, too little has been spent on broad-based action such as projects designed to reduce vulnerability to disaster.

There is also evidence that not everyone realises that climate change, which tends to be overshadowed by other concerns, is a very real problem. For example, a survey held in Guatemala in 2006 revealed that city-dwellers in particular believe that crime is a greater risk than natural catastrophes and climate change. Consequently, the will to do something to protect the climate is lacking. Juan Carlos Villagran of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the UN University in Bonn commented: “The ice at the Arctic circle may be melting – but that’s still a long way from Central America.” People living there neither fully perceive nor understand the concept of climate change. Villagran went on: “Many natural catastrophes are regarded as inevitable, or even as a form of divine retribution. It is vital that those involved realise that by cutting down the forests they too contribute in some measure to weather catastrophes.”

Emerging countries forge ahead

Although CO2 emissions per capita in the emerging economies are still well below those of the industrialised countries, China's example shows just how rapidly emissions can increase. The world’s most populous country became a net importer of energy in the 1990s and, since 2006, its greenhouse gas emissions have exceeded those of other nations. Coal is the main energy source, and experts believe consumption will have risen to 2bn tonnes by 2020. Some 2,000 km of new motorways are being constructed every year to keep pace with the growing number of vehicles which, on conservative estimates, will be around 150 million by 2020, eight times more than in 2004. Chuan Chi, manager of the DCKIH (Sino-German cooperation bureau for industry and trade) explains: “Current traffic density in China is no higher than that of Germany in the early 1960s”, the implication being that the trend is far from over.

If the emerging economies wish to catch up with the industrialised countries, natural resources vital to the global climate will be at risk. For instance, more than 12% of the world’s water resources are found in Brazil, the country with the largest area of rainforest. However, it is thought that 182,000 square kilometres, approximately two-thirds the area of Germany, could turn into desert and already many are being forced to move. They are crowding into the Amazon region, where the rainforest is gradually being cut down to create pastureland for cattle. According to estimates, 600,000 square kilometres of rainforest have been destroyed since the 1970s, a quarter between 2000 and 2006 (an area larger than Greece). Heitor Matallo, of the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD): “The technology transfer needed to ensure that farming was environmentally sound simply did not take place.” There is neither a local nor a national environment watch and insufficient funds are available to provide long-term environmental protection and combat poverty.

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