The Melting Iceberg

WORKING GROUPS
Our Future lies in your hands!

11/12/08. We have built our growth on extensive use of coal, thus creating the climate change problem. This is no longer an option. Nor for north, but neither for south. That’s how you can sum up the presentation by Mr Sivan Kartha from Stockholm Institute, who was kind to meet with parliament delegation today, and informed us about the report “The Greenhouse Development Rights Framework”, in which Mr. Kartha is a key-author.

He stated clearly that both north and south have to transfer their economies and societies into low-carbon ones soon, as time is running out.

The question is who pays. And Mr Kartha with his group has presented a proposal for “burden sharing” at a global level. The model is based on calculation of the income level of the country combined with the level of emissions released by that country. What is left, is the burden of the country in question. When calculated like this, it is clear that the industrial and rich countries have to be the burden carriers. We have to reduce our own emissions and at the same time finance the reductions and investments in developing world. It is a question of fairness and solidarity, as also developing countries have a right to develop and survive. And that is why we have to help them financially to transfer their economies to low-carbon as well.

When listening to Mr Sivan Kartha, I couldn’t help reflecting on what he said, and contrasting it to the speech by the prime minister of Tuvalu, Mr. Apisai Ielemia, in the opening ceremony of COP 14. The prime minister said: “Our future is in your hands. We haven’t caused this problem and we can’t solve it by ourselves. Combating climate change is also a question of human rights. We are a proud nation and country that has a right to exist. So we need action from you.”

I got the feeling that in the audience lot of people nodded their heads – this is what we know, this is what we have to do. But as the Head-secretary of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon told us in the same opening ceremony: we know what to do. Whether we do it, is a question of leadership.

Venla Virkamäki
Assistant to MEP Riitta Myller