Friday, December 7, 2007

Bali: Poor countries demand climate change adaptation tech

Wired Science: While it's important to keep in mind that the US has been, is and will be the biggest roadblock to discussing a post-Kyoto deal with teeth, there are signs that a schism between the developed and developing worlds is emerging at the Bali climate change conference. Delegates from around the world descended on Indonesia on the 3rd, and will remain there until the 14th, when negotiators hope to have a roadmap for dealing with climate change hammered out.

While the developed world toys with the idea of put together a roadmap for reducing their carbon emissions, poorer countries are arguing that they are already feeling the impacts of climate change, and that they lack the resources to adapt to extreme temperatures and "global weirding." The Group of 77, which actually represents 132 countries and China, is demanding technology from the rich countries of the world to help themselves adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The poor countries have a point. After all, they have not contributed significantly to the problem of CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere. Despite their lack of culpability, everyone recognizes they are the most vulnerable countries, and Oxfam estimates that climate change adaptation is costing these countries $50 billion per year (pdf). It stands to reason (and justice) that these countries shouldn't be forced to pay for changes to their climates that they didn't cause.

The problem is that, rhetorically, "aid for the third world" has been a flop in the United States. As Columbia's Thomas Pogge (brilliantly) argues, we're pretty good at finding moral loopholes in such situations. If knowing that two billion people live on less than $2 each and every day doesn't make Westerners flinch, I'm skeptical that knowing those two billion people might lose their homes because of flooding at some point in the next 50 years is going to get them to open their wallets.

No comments: