Jamaica Gleaner
Published: Thursday | December 3, 2009
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Islands turn up heat on global warming
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

FEARFUL THAT their lands might in the future be submerged, the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), of which Jamaica is a member, is demanding stringent restrictions on levels of global-warming activities that are permitted.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, said the AOSIS is pressing for climate-change limits because member states face an existential risk.

"While some countries have suggested a cap of 2C for temperature rise above pre-industrial levels, AOSIS is insisting on no more than 1.5, arguing that at two degrees, 80 per cent of The Bahamas, for example, would eventually disappear under the sea," Golding said.

Politicians will head to Copen-hagen, Denmark, for a major climate-change conference, starting next week, with a view to reaching consensus on tackling the problem of global warming. Golding said the conference "requires a collectivity of commitment and action greater than anything the world has ever seen".

The United Nations 2007 intergovernmental panel report on climate change indicated that 11 of the previous 12 years were the warmest on record.

Poor at great risk

Scientists have listed carbon emissions from fossil fuels as a major contributor to the looming crisis. Experts have also said the world's poorest and most vulnerable will pay the greatest price for global warming.

"According to our estimation, 75 per cent to 80 per cent of the estimated damage will be borne by developing countries," World Bank chief economist, Justin Lin, said.

While world leaders agonise over concessions and restrictions in fighting global warming, many developing countries have indicated they want better deals. Some are demanding deeper emission cuts and lower limits on temperature rise and greenhouse gas concentration.

"There is broad consensus that action needs to be taken to avert the complete ruination of the global environment," Golding said.

He, however, conceded that the Copenhagen conference might be fraught with roadblocks.

"The challenge facing the Copenhagen conference is to reach a binding, verifiable, enforceable agreement on precisely what must be done and how the responsibility for doing it must be allocated," the prime minister said.

It is estimated that it would cost $250 billion-$500 billion yearly to save the environment through mitigation and adaptation measures.

Commonwealth consensus

Meanwhile, Golding, who was apprising Parliament of his participation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in Trinidad and Tobago last week, said leaders of member states were unanimous in their efforts to secure a binding agreement on climate change.

"The danger to the planet of global warming, and the catastrophes it will produce if left unchecked, including the uninhabitability of parts of the word, particularly some small states, is not the alarmist warnings of overzealous scientists," the prime minister said.

Golding said several issues were discussed at the Commonwealth conference but noted that the most significant were the global economic crisis and "the urgent need to forge a collective response to the creeping disaster of global warming".

The United Nations Copenhagen meeting aims to arrive at a plan to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, with the aim of preventing global warming. It begins on December 7 and will run for two weeks.

The prime minister has invited the Opposition People's National Party to accompany his delegation to the conference.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com

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