Climate change: Issue should unite us for common good

As you may recall from previous briefings, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (RIO + 20), will meet from June 20-22, 2012, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The two major themes to be addressed are: the green economy, in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development; and, an institutional framework for sustainable development. In the New Year, I will offer more detailed explanations of these themes. Just recently, however, an important related event took place in Durban, South Africa—the 17th UN Climate Change Conference. While there was extensive media coverage of this meeting in other parts of our world, relatively little information was provided here in the United States. It is important for us to ask ourselves why this is the case.

Here is some background about the conference. In 1992, countries joined together in an international treaty—the United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCC) – in an effort to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.” The UNFCC has near universal membership. Under this convention, membership governments commit to gather and share information on greenhouse gas emissions; launch national strategies for addressing emissions and adapting to impacts, including the provision of financial and technological support to developing countries; and to cooperate in preparing for adaptations to the negative impact of climate change. Realizing that the greenhouse gas emissions reduction provisions contained in the convention were inadequate, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1995. This Protocol legally binds the developed countries to stabilize their greenhouse gas emissions to an average five per cent reduction compared to 1990 levels, over the five-year period 2008–2012. It only binds developed countries, because it recognizes that they are largely responsible for the current high levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere—an accumulation of over 150 years of industrial activity based on the use of fossil fuels. Under the Protocol, the rest of the world pledged to deal with climate change on a voluntary basis.

At the time the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, the United States was the world’s largest source of man-made carbon. The United States, however, never ratified the Protocol. Neither China nor India was required to sign it, as their status was that of “developing” countries. Over the past six years, both these countries have become huge emitters of carbon. However, their status as “developing” countries leaves them with no constraints on their emissions. The United States refuses to sign on to anything unless both China and India do so, despite the fact that the United States is the world’s largest historic polluter.

The hope in Durban was to create a framework that would eventually bring all major emitters of greenhouse gases under a single legal roof. The European Union was instrumental in assuring that the Kyoto Protocol will continue as the foundation of global efforts to fight climate change—although Japan, Russia and Canada have withdrawn, perhaps encouraged to do so by the example of U.S. non-compliance. Negotiations will commence for a wider legal agreement for all countries by 2015, to enter into force from 2020. However, the science of climate change tells us—and has been telling us—that to avoid catastrophic levels of warming—and the droughts and floods that would inevitably follow—global emissions must peak within the next five years. Poorer countries are already struggling to cope with intense droughts, floods and rising sea levels, all of which have a devastating impact on food security, as well as on international peace and security.

In light of all of this, “by what right” does the United States consistently refuse to do what is good and necessary and ethical in the area of climate change, until others do so as well? What if we took the lead in this? Our intransigence continues to put the lives of others at great risk. At the Durban conference, information surfaced indicating that commercial banks, including Barclays, JP Morgan Chase and the Royal Bank of Scotland, have nearly doubled their support for the global coal industry since 2005—effectively undermining the Kyoto Protocol’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Obviously, this has been done with the full knowledge of the U.S. government. Despite a fairly well-organized campaign of disinformation regarding climate change, there is great consensus among scientists worldwide that the planet is warming, primarily due to human interference. The dynamic played out at Durban saw governments acting solely out of national/regional self-interest—a very dangerous mode of operation in an increasingly interdependent world. The ethics of decision-making is never considered.

At a preparatory meeting for RIO + 20 held here in New York last week, one speaker addressed the need for a consensus for the sake of humanity, the planet, and future generations, and suggested that this may require governments to move away from dearly held positions, for the sake of a greater good—a common good. Here in New York, The NGO Committee for Sustainable Development will be working to pressure our U.S. mission regarding a more collaborative involvement on the part of the United States at the conference in Rio. Over the next few months, I will share this strategy with you, and invite you to join us in our efforts.

Perhaps the words of Thomas Berry can be a source of inspiration for us all, as we participate as best we can in this great work…

Of one thing we can be sure: our own future is inseparable from the larger community that brought us into being and which sustains us in
every expression of our human life… We see quite clearly that what happens to the non-human, happens to the human. What happens to the outer world, happens to the inner world. Without the soaring birds, without the great forests, the free-flowing streams, the sight of the clouds by day, and the stars by night, we become impoverished in all that makes us human.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and pray that each of us might be renewed by the grace of this celebration of Incarnation to be steadfast in our efforts to make the Reign of God a bit more visible wherever we are.

Margaret Mayce, OP (DLC/Amityville) NGO in Special Consultative Status at the United Nations Dominican Leadership Conference 211 East 43 St. Rm 704 New York, NY 10017 email: Margaret Mayce, OP