EDITORIAL - Tackling climate change

The leaders of several of the world’s biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions are not attending the United Nations summit on climate change, which opened yesterday at UN headquarters in New York. Among those skipping the summit are the leaders of China, India and Russia, three of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide. Also absent at the summit are the heads of advanced economies such as Canada and Germany.

Their absence is just one of the manifestations of the complexity of trying to get the world to agree on ways of dealing with climate change. The UN is hoping to hammer out an agreement on climate change next year in Paris after discussions in Lima, Peru in December. President Aquino is one of more than 120 world leaders attending the gathering in New York.

The Philippines, which last year suffered apocalyptic destruction from Super Typhoon Yolanda, is one of the most vulnerable to the impact of global warming. While President Aquino was in Europe last week, Storm Mario spawned torrential flooding that shut down Metro Manila. The country has a stake in seeing greenhouse gas emissions reduced.

As the debate on climate change has shown, however, getting the world to agree on achieving that objective is a daunting challenge. Developing countries are not ready to wean themselves away from fossil fuels, which may be polluting but are cheaper than cleaner alternatives. They argue that advanced economies also depended heavily on fossil fuels on their way to prosperity. Developing countries also point out that advanced economies must do more to cut down on their own fossil fuel consumption.

As what used to be regarded as freak weather becomes the new normal, governments are likely to be more open to policies that will lead to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Nature will leave the world with few choices.