Fighting Global Warming and Poverty
Paul Burman on July 24th, 2009Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the midst of a five-day visit to India has not been received warmly by her hosts as she broaches the subject of carbon emissions reductions. Clinton is urging India to reduce its emissions in accord with proposed action of the rest of the world to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of global warming-causing carbon dioxide emissions.
Ms. Clinton asserts “no inherent contradiction between poverty eradication and moving towards a low-carbon economy,” a claim that some officials disagree on.
“There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have been among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions,” Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister told Ms. Clinton.
Here you have the paradox – how can we fight global warming without India’s participation? How can we get India to participate when they have more pressing issues at hand? Is there an inherent contradiction between economic and social development and clean energy?
There is no clear answer to these questions, hence the paradox. But there are real steps that we can take today the fight global warming and support local communities.
Live Climate is an organization that fights poverty through the use of carbon financing. Their projects not only reduce emissions, but also bring electricity to remote communities or provide work to otherwise under-employed people. Also, there are clear areas of convergence where fighting global warming will certainly help improve the quality of life of the poor. Many type of renewable energy, for example, are highly probable and can be implemented in remote locations that wouldn’t otherwise have power. And a fundamental principle of fighting global warming – improved energy efficiency – should help allow everyone to do more with less.
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climate change is not the great assignment for Eropians or America, China but also African, hence Gevornment and organizations are not the only responsible entities rather every one of us in the world are concerned and must act against global warming. I am sure, every body knows well the issue, but the dialema is related to these questions…when, how and where? To me the reseponse is… starting from today onwards-by promoting green environement and reducing carbon emission on the p-lace where we are through out everybody's life.____To achieve better success, fuoll dedication and commitment ifrom individuals/ community members, organizations (Go/ NGOs) and private sectors is vital.____Wudie Bekalu, Hawassa University, Ethiopia.