World is taking huge gamble with climate change issue

The difference in opinion between the developed and the developing world is still main stumbling block in climate change talks any by the current looks of it world is still extremely far from agreeing the Kyoto successor. The failure to reach new climate deal will mean that countries will have to commit to only voluntary steps which are unlikely to halt climate change impact.

By delaying the necessary climate change action in form of new legally binding international climate deal world is taking a huge gamble. The result of this risky policy could very easily be manifested in extreme droughts, floods, storms, crop failures, and even new diseases.

The emissions still continue to grow and world is heating up, particularly because fast developing countries like China and India need more coal and other fossil fuels to drive their economies forward.

Developing world doesn't give up on its stand that rich countries need to commit to tougher carbon cuts while rich nations believe that all big polluters need to be equally included in carbon cuts, including the likes of China and India.

In the meantime climate change has already started showing its scary face as according to the US National Weather Service extreme weather events (together with floods) have already accounted to $35 billion in damage in the first seven months of this year. This projected damage doesn't include billions in losses coming from the hurricane Irene which struck the United States in August.

The climate change is constantly moving forward, strengthening its impact while world leaders haven't moved an inch in their negotiations.

And what about the most vulnerable countries such as for instance low-lying islands? Sea levels are rising very fast and the quick climate action is the only way to stop them from rising even higher.

World still hasn't matured enough to realize that climate change issue is not a good place to fortify individual political wills. Climate change is global threat that is already affecting the lives of millions people around the globe and things can only become worse if we remain ignorant about it.

If climate change issue can't unite the world what can? The stakes can't be higher because we are gambling here with the destiny of our future generations. Is this risk really worth to take just because of different political interests?

Will poor countries get enough money to adapt to climate change?

The only way developing world can adapt to climate change is if rich world carries the financial burden needed to help developing nations adapt to droughts, floods and rising sea levels.

Last year's Copenhagen summit was generally one big failure but nevertheless the rich countries have still pledged to raise $100bn a year in climate aid from 2020 in order to help developing world. Can this really be achieved and will poor countries really get enough money to adapt to climate change?

According to the latest UN report obtaining this money will be challenging but still feasible, because UN believes that the public sector could extract more than $100bn and the private sector five times more, up to $500bn a year.

The UN report has also specified possible sources by claiming that between $2bn and $27bn could be raised from financial transaction taxes on foreign exchange, $4bn to $9bn from shipping, $2bn to $3bn from aviation, $3bn to $8bn from removal of fossil fuel subsidies and $8bn to $38bn from auctioning carbon allowances.

Putting prices on carbon emissions is still the key to success, and it has been calculated that carbon price needs to be in the range of $20 to $25 a tonne of carbon dioxide if the world wants to reach the desired $100bn mark.

Global politics is yet to achieve the desired level of political acceptability for this plan because there are still many issues between developed and developing world that need to be sorted out prior to reaching the final agreement.

Climate talks in Cancun are fast approaching, and it will be very interesting to see how far did countries progressed since Copenhagen, and whether world is finally ready to act as one in order to tackle climate change.

Global warming - Not enough cash for poor countries?

Without financial aid from rich countries poor countries have no chance to adapt to global warming. Latest estimations about the money needed for poor countries to tackle global warming were somewhere about 130 billion dollars a year by 2030. However this scenario looks very unlikely, especially from current point of view.

UN Climate adaptation fund that should distribute financial aid to poor countries is desperately short of money that it may not be able to hold scheduled meetings for next year. Rich countries that are attending meeting in Poznan, Poland will have to give larger funds as soon as possible. If rich countries fail to make an agreement and give money to poor countries millions of people around the world will suffer.

The rich countries need to be aware that they were the ones that caused global warming with their excessive greenhouse gas emissions. Financial aid to poor countries is really a moral duty that we shouldn't even put in the question. Rich countries have made this climate change mess that threatens the survival of millions of people and they still have the nerve to delay with necessary funds.

Global warming is already here. We don't think anymore on how to stop global warming but how to adapt to global warming. Adaptation is of vital importance and poor countries don't have enough money to fight global warming by themselves. Without the help of rich countries poor countries would be extremely vulnerable once global warming starts showing its real face in form of more droughts and floods, falling food production and rising seas. Lives of millions of people are at stake.

Poor countries need help to fight climate change

Poor countries are helpless to fight climate change without the aid from rich countries. UN climate change organization calculated that poor countries will need about 130 billion dollars a year by 2030 in order to have any chance of successfully reducing carbon emissions and adapt to global warming.

Current fundings intended to help poor countries are not enough, and according to UN rich countries have to invest six times they are investing now in order to really make the difference. Current funds is somewhere around 20 billion dollars.

Additional problem is that majority of these funds are mostly oriented to develop clean (renewable) energy sector in these countries and only small share of available money is actually used to help countries adapt to changes that are coming with global warming. This politic will have to change very soon because development of renewable technologies takes long time, and global warming is not kind enough to wait their installation and development. Financial crisis, if continues, will also slow down increase of funds intended to poor countries, because rich countries will first try to stabilize their financial markets.

Hopefully this time rich ones will not forget the poor ones like they usually do.

Greenhouse gas emissions up, especially in transition countries

UN's climate change agency has released new figures that showed how in period from 2000 to 2006 greenhouse gas emissions rose to 2,3 %, with biggest increases in former Soviet countries and Canada. Canada is particularly worrying because its greenhouse gas emissions rose incredible 21,3 % in period between 1990 and 2006. Eastern European countries also recorded significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions of 7,4 %. This of course is anything but a good sign in world's fight against climate change, and it clearly shows that current efforts are not enough and that world has to search for new solutions.

There hasn't been official report that would indicate condition in major emitting countries like China and USA, but many experts believe that emissions in these countries are constantly rising, especially in China because of its recent economic boom. The problem with greenhouse gas emission rise is especially connected with countries that are going through a phase of transition becoming stronger economically because these countries are then experiencing sudden energy demand that is mostly satisfied with dirty fossil fuels that produce CO2 and other greenhouse gases when burn. Renewables are very rarely decent alternative in transition countries because they haven't yet become dominant in the world's strongest economies, so we really can not expect their use in developing nations.

World has to act very quickly on this matter because so far we are slowly but surely losing fight against global warming and climate change. If we want to change the outcome of this fight whole world's needs some new "revolutionary" clean energy plan that would really make the difference. Of course everything has to be done on global level with the inclusion of all world's leading countries. And it has to be done as soon as possible because greenhouse gas emissions are constantly rising.

Can poor countries fight climate change and global warming

Simple answer is no. Not alone. Even the rich states will have serious challenge before (and if) they succeed in fight against climate change and global warming. So what about the poor ones? As many of you already know Africa is continent most vulnerable to global warming because already high temperatures are getting even higher, and climate change and unpredictable weather is already affecting crops and food supply which could cause more hunger in many poor countries of Africa.

Therefore Africa needs more funds, and also more educated population in order to understand how serious climate change problem really is, and this is the moment when rich countries of modern world should step in and make the difference. Norway gave the right example by securing aid package of $ 100 million to Tanzania over five years to tackle climate change and deforestation.

Tanzania has serious problem with deforestation and has one of the fastest rates of deforestation in Africa and importance of forest preservation (especially rainforests) is vital in fight against global warming and climate change. As Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said: "Deforestation represents around 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions" and this percentage is certainly not negligible.

Norway has understood the seriousness of climate change and aims to be carbon neutral, offsetting all its emissions, by 2030. Now if only all countries(especially big ones like USA, China, India) would share their philosophy climate change would soon be forgotten. But reality is very different and many poor countries in Africa will soon (if current trend of CO2 emissions continues) experience all negative climate change effects.

It is a cruel irony that these countries, that are the least responsible for climate change will be first to be confronted with serious impact of climate change, and rich countries simply have to do something to prevent this from happening. If not because of their moral obligation, then at least to try preventing full impact of climate change for their own sake as climate change will not only stop at Africa but will spread in all corners of the world. And so rich countries have to act and act as soon as possible because by helping these poor countries we're really helping ourselves and our planet.

Africa needs help to fight global warming and climate change

Global warming in Africa – Who's to blame, what to do?

Africa isn't responsible for global warming and climate change, but still suffers most of all continents and will continue to do so if rich countries continue with their large emission of greenhouse gases. The great irony lies in the fact that Africa has the lowest per capita fossil energy use of any major world region but is most vulnerable continent to climate change. This irony will continue even further because Africa is too poor to handle the problem by itself. Furthermore rich countries should be having at least ethical obligation to work on this problem, since they are the ones that caused it, but there's still much more words than actual work and real action is still desperately needed.

And the signs of climate change in Africa have become more than obvious in form of spreading diseases, melting glaciers in the mountains, warming temperatures in drought-prone areas, sea-level rise, etc.. Climate will shortly become totally unpredictable in Africa as countries will face either torrential floods or severe drought during a season which will even worsen already weak food and water supply and cause many deaths.

Predictions are horrifying - a minimum 2.5°C increase in temperature in Africa by 2030. This will cause many drylands and could even result in dry up of surface water. Biodiversity of this continent will be also severely affected and many animal habitats will lose their necessary conditions and in warm sub-Saharan Africa, between 25% and 40% of animals in national parks may become endangered.

Africa's greatest peak Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania will lose its ice by 2020 if current rate of ice melting continues and there are also disappearing glaciers in Uganda and Kenya because of warm temperatures. In many parts there's also sea level rise which causes the loss of coastal land and is projected to rise by extremely high 25cm by 2050, and like this all isn't enough trouble, there are also many diseases such as malaria that are direct result of higher annual temperatures and cause death of many African people, especially since Africa lacks many hospitals and roads to existing ones.

So where is the moral of rich countries? Where is the required quick action needed to help these people in winning this fight, this terrible war against climate which they didn't even started? Where's the necessary money needed for roads, schools, clinics and other improvements in most vulnerable areas? Africa’s politicians are too weak and many of them still unaware of this problem and so they need help, help of those that did the damage, help not only to protect their environment, but to protect their lives.

There's really not much Africa can do unless rich countries do two things: cut greenhouse emissions and give substantial financial aid. Without this Africa will not only be unable to fight, but unable to survive once natural disasters like floods, droughts, earthquakes, landslides become more frequent and once diseases like malaria and cholera strike heavily on Africa's population. I

If anybody deserves help than this is certainly Africa. Africa is our last chance to show humanity and moral responsibility if there’s some humanity still left in us.

Global warming in Africa - Will Africa survive?