AS GOVERNMENT negotiators wrangled over how to address climate change this
month, Hurricane Mitch roared through Central America, leaving behind a
devastating trail of carnage and human suffering.
This year alone we have witnessed the hottest month worldwide since records
began. El Nino has claimed over 22,000 victims, freak weather events have been
recorded all over the world and ice caps and glaciers are melting at both the
north and south poles.
Nearer to home, we have witnessed floods, unusually long droughts in PNG, Fiji, and the Marshalls caused by El Nino, and cyclones and
typhoons in French Polynesia and Cook Islands.
All this has been attributed to
climate change caused by the build up in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases,
which are released through the burning of coal, oil and gas by industrialised
countries.
Despite overwhelming evidence of the manifestation of climate change,
governments attending the Fourth Conference of Parties meeting to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Argentina dithered over
agreement on a concrete work programme for how developed countries will reduce
their greenhouse gases.
It was very clear to many attending the meeting that trade and economics drove
the discussions rather than climate. Science was replaced by the marketplace.
The Pacific was well represented at the meeting. Its delegates were singing a
familiar old song, but once again their concerns were not addressed.
Those concerns bear repeating. Pacific Island countries are among the most
vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Many are already feeling the
effects of this change. For many regional governments attending the meeting,
getting agreement on a programme to address growing greenhouse gas emissions was
crucial. We are running out of time.
Sea level rise in low lying island atolls such as Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and
Kiribati is already resulting in salt water intrusion into fresh water tables.
People have had to change the way they grow crops because salty water has seeped
into the soil making it too salty to grow taro and other staples. Strong sea
surges have slowly eroded away coastlines in many islands, destroying sea walls
and threatening infrastructure. Many significant coastal cultural and spiritual
sites such as burial grounds are severely threatened. Rising sea levels have
already swamped some small motu (islets) in the Pacific.
The effect on Pacific economies has been devastating. The recent drought here in
Fiji wiped out two thirds of sugar cane crops, which provide 40 percent of
export earnings. A recent report from the United Nations Disaster Assessment and
Coordination team stated that 15,000 cane families are on the brink of
starvation, and has recommended that government make welfare provisions of
$30 million.
In Papua New Guinea, Australia spent more than AU$20 million
delivering food aid to people in isolated areas in highlands and low lying areas
suffering from the extended drought. In FSM, almost 40 atolls ran out of water,
and Pohnpei residents had to resort to living off brackish underground water.
The outcome of the climate conference was agreement on a basic Buenos Aires Plan
of Action - dubbed by many international environmental organizations as a "plan
of inaction". In this, governments declared their determination to strengthen
the implementation of the Climate Convention and to start preparing for the
entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol requires developed
countries to take on legally binding commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas
emissions. But the Kyoto Protocol also has market mechanisms, which allow
developed countries to buy their way out of reducing their greenhouse emissions
by investing in projects in developing countries.
Many developing countries, including those of the Pacific view these mechanisms
as an easy-way-out for the industrialised world. In Buenos Aires, the Prime
Minister of Tuvalu was extremely critical, saying "The Annex 1 countries
(developed countries) must not be allowed to sell off their responsibilities on
cheap and easy to do projects in developing countries. They have not only a
conventional obligation but also a moral obligation to take action at home. No
more, no less."
There was immense pressure at the meeting from developed countries, including
Australia and New Zealand, to get the go-ahead for an early start for these
market mechanisms. It is vital Pacific countries resist the temptation to
participate in this sort of trading, without waiting for rules and guidelines to
be set out on how these projects will operate. And we should make sure we have
a say in the formulation of these guidelines.
We already know some of the impacts of climate change, we even know the causes.
We have the solutions, but some people are not listening. Unless industrialised
governments show the political will to enforce economic policy changes, the
lives and future existence of Pacific cultures and societies remain at stake.
While the New Zealand Minister for Environment told delegates in Buenos Aires
that more needed to be done to protect small states, the sincerity of his and
other developed countries can be measured by how much effort they take in
reducing their emissions at home.
There has been more hot air than action.
Greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise. Greenpeace calculates that if
we continue to burn fossil fuels at present levels, damage to the climate system
will be irreversible.
Angenette Heffernan is climate change campaigner of Greenpeace Pacific.
