SouthernVoices.net, click for home.
Attention: This article has been translated by Google Translate

Image sourced from: http://www.eoi.es/blogs/juancarlosgomezmartin/files/2013/12/haiyan.jpgWhenever we talk about climate change, instinctively associate with problems we will face in the future or that someone else suffers . We think that in a century the glaciers will melt and die pretty polar bears, or the heat will be more intense , or they could have more storms .

Despite the scientific knowledge available and all efforts made ​​to multiple organizations give public relevance to this problem, yet it costs -political , moral and ideológicamenteenfrentar the many questions that the climate crisis upon us :
• What will we do with the citizens of small island states once they lose their sources of fresh water or land are submerged in the sea?
• What will we do with the thousands of climate migrants who are forced to leave their homes turned into dangerous or uninhabitable areas ?
• What will be drastically reduced if the productivity of our main sources of food ?
• What will face the gradual loss of our biodiversity and environmental mismatch balances?

Perhaps the most complex of all is to accept that all these questions must be answered in the present, and collectively, for humanity. Understand , as citizens of the planet, which is about current problems will get worse in the future.

Hundreds of evidence accumulate regularly in the press and social media , confirming the global climate crisis . You do not read a new " climate phenomenon never seen before " or " historical precedents " caused hundreds of deaths and serious damage. Just re-read the news in the Philippines Super Typhoon Haiyan . And yet , does not change the overall policy .

We do know, though , that twenty years of negotiations in the UN Framework Convention on Climate hange been no significant agreement on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases , formally called " mitigation." The weight of corporate power and governments that anchor their development in pollution continues to be imposed.

I remember seeing a video that suggested greater coherence to baptize typhoons and hurricanes. Name them better politicians who did nothing to address climate change. Or you put them on behalf of the owners of large corporations , billionaires who profit at the expense of dirty and polluting industries. Maybe they're right.

The absence of serious mitigation commitments and lack of flow of financial resources for adaptation, capacity building and transfer of technology have expanded the border of the losses and damages caused by climate change. I would not be pessimistic, but the future is not encouraging.

Overall this is incomprehensible irresponsibility which has forced negotiations " loss and damage associated with climate change " at the United Nations. Therefore, the first major battle in the Warsaw Conference (COP 19 November 2013) was to achieve a global public recognition of the impacts that are already occurring in situations of extreme intensity or lentodesarrollo to which simply can not adapt.

Finally, thanks to public pressure, the COP 19 Warsaw international mechanism on loss and damage associated with climate change impacts, subordinate to the Cancun Adaptation Framework, which will be reviewed in 2016 was created. As a result, it is expected that there will be more meetings, more institutional coordination efforts and technical work, but none of it will have an direct impact on poorer communities and vulnerable .

At least in Warsaw was achieved that the issue was not buried alive and had at least one field of negotiation under the responsibility of a new Executive Committee. But it is also true that the folly won decisions . The industrialized countries, especially the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan flatly refuse to offer serious mitigation commitments and , therefore, also fled the establishment of an international mechanism to include the obligation to provide financial resources when weather tragedies occur. Prefer to stay in their scheme of " voluntariness " through humanitarian assistance.

Mandela 's reflection on poverty applies well to the climate crisis : "Poverty is not natural, it is man-made and can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And eradicating poverty is not an act of charity, it is an act of justice. "

* Climate Change Officer , Centro Humboldt, Nicaragua . Member of the Nicaraguan Alliance on Climate Change ( ANACC ) and Latin American Building Bridges Initiative .

Image courtesy of http://www.eoi.es/blogs/juancarlosgomezmartin/files/2013/12/haiyan.jpg

Search Tool

config

What is Adaptation and DRR?

what is modules

An four-pages introduction to Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), prepared by CARE Climate Change.

Read more

 

High 5 @ Adaptation

Developed by EYWASYSTEMS
We use cookies to enhance your experience visiting our website and to bring you content that is inline with your interests.
Learn more
?>