December 5, 2007 | 12:00am
Nearly 190 countries and close to 20,000 delegates are now in Bali, Indonesia with the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to discuss or define the global response to the real threat of global warming. Hopefully this 12-day conference would result in these countries making concrete steps to curb those so-called “Greenhouse Drivers” of Global Warming like CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, destroying a chunk of the Ozone layer.
No doubt the biggest culprit in global warming is the United States of America, which emits around 20 tons of carbon dioxide per capita per year. Yet when the Kyoto Protocol started to be enforced, the US did not sign it, giving excuses that developing nations like China that also emits tons of carbon dioxide were not forced to cut their emissions. While we understand why the US government felt this way, there is no question that everyone suffers from the consequence of the excessive emission of CO2 to the atmosphere.
This includes developing nations like China, India, Brazil and even Indonesia, whose forest cover is fast being depleted.
However, the Bali Summit is up to a good start. Australia, like the US, also didn’t sign the Kyoto Protocol under Prime Minister John Howard, but since his defeat in the Australian elections a couple of weeks ago, his successor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who was sworn into office only a few days ago, immediately flew to Bali and announced to all that Australia had already signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, thus leaving the USA the only nation that still hasn’t awaken to the reality of today’s problems with regards cleaning up our environment for the good of all earthlings.
The Kyoto Protocol has committed 36 highly-developed countries to reduce their gas emissions of six greenhouse gases by 5 percent below the 1990 level and those targets have to be met by the year 2008 up to 2012. The Bali Conference will be taking up a “post-Kyoto” scenario where the participating countries would attest that there would be no break between the two commitment periods.
Perhaps the huge difference between the time during the Kyoto Conference and today is that, the news media through the effective use of satellite tv has been so active in the past two years in bringing to the whole world a consciousness of the dire effects of global warming. Thanks also to former US Vice-President Al Gore for his “An Inconvenient Truth” documentary that won him a Nobel Peace Prize. It is because of him that many Americans want Pres. George Bush to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Indeed, no one can say that they would be “spared” from this problem because when the sea level rises, we shall see the immediate migration of millions of people living in low-lying areas or island dwellers. There are a lot of them between the islands of Cebu and Bohol. Are we prepared to do our share in helping clean up the environment? I say we should. Mr. Joseph d’ Cruz, the Bangkok-based Regional Technical Advisor to the UN Development Programme said, “Global warming is a civilisational issue.” I fully agree with him.
But where is the Philippines headed? Open any newspaper or your tv set and chances are that the media is talking about the latest Trillanes caper and the possible involvement of media personalities in that coup. The Philippines is well represented in the Bali Conference, but whether or not it would translate into action is another story. After all, the Philippines have always been known as a nation that crafts the greatest laws, but zero in enforcement.
We must do our share as a people that lives in this planet. For instance, Thailand’s per capita emission level is at 4.2 tons while Malaysia is at 7.5 tons, while China is 3.8 tons. I really haven’t seen the figures for the Philippines, but it should be in the neighborhood of Thailand or Malaysia. But these nations are pushing hard to reduce their emission levels. We too must take drastic action like the rest of Southeast Asia.
While I was in Indonesia last week, I gathered that because of the wanton deforestation, they are now proposing for compensation by developed nations for keeping those forests from being cut down. The scenario will be that a logging company can calculate how much money it makes from one hectare of forest and gets paid for keeping it intact. Now whether the Bali Conference will approve this proposal is something we can learn within the next 12 days. What about us Cebuanos? What can we do to help our stricken earth? One thing you can do is stop that jeepney driver for smoke belching. Plan your travel so you use less gasoline. These are simple steps that would certainly go a long way in our valiant effort to save the earth!
