Dickinson to Durban » Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action » SHOW ME THE MONEY!!
SHOW ME THE MONEY!!
This image depicts the possible future trend of GHGs from both developed and developing counties. Developed countries "started" climate change, but the developing countries will exacerbate it unless they are given the proper tools.
As many know, developed countries such as the United States, have been the primary emitters of Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) and are often accused of causing global climate change. This may be so, but pointing fingers will only get us so far. What we need to look at going forward is how to mitigate the problem of global climate change and where the future emissions will come from. With more and more countries trying to make the move from “developing” to “developed”, we are bound to see a slew of industrial revolutions and thus a significant in GHG emission from countries that currently produce the smallest amounts. How do we prevent these increased emissions while still allowing these developing countries to prosper? Sustainable development!
One problem, sustainable development is expensive, far more so that just allowing these countries to just pollute. So, how do we provide funding to these countries to do it “right”? This is something that has come into a great deal of discussion and debate. In the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), financing obligations are given primarily to the developed nations. In paragraph 3 of Article 4 of the UNFCCC text, it states that developed country parties “shall also provide such financial resources, including for the transfer of technology, needed by the developing country Parties to meet the agreed full incremental costs of implementing measures that are covered by paragraph 1 of this Article”. The measures being referred to are that of GHG mitigation. Why, though, does it rely on developed countries alone to support sustainable development in other countries, when they still haven’t figured it out for their own countries?
It doesn’t. One of the key actors for financing mitigation projects and sustainable development is the World Bank. In 2002 the World Bank launched a program known as the Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF), which started with an initial capital of $128.6 million (Bulkeley and Newell, 41). The World Bank has also created other funds and organizations with some aspect of sustainable development, but they seem to contradict themselves quite nicely sometimes. In 2007 the World Banks energy-sector portfolio was worth $1.8 billion, less than 50% of which came from renewable energies (Bulkeley and Newell, 43). The World Bank seems to think that it does not serve them to invest in to renewable energies; they also make it hard for the small developing countries to acquire loans that may be used for environmentally sound development. So, back to square 1, where does the money come from?
Cited
Bulkeley, Harriet and Newell, Peter. Global Institutions: Governing Climate Change. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.
United Nations. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 1992
Sam Parker
Dickinson College ’12
Dickinson College Biodiesel
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action · Tags: Developed Countries, Developing Countries, Sam Parker, Sustainable Development, UNFCCC, World Bank
like you said, pointing fingers will not work! Shift the focus to developing countries and maintain greener development projects because we are most certainly going to see these growing nations producing more emissions in the future
Mauritius Africa