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The Climate Change Conference in Doha will Achieve Nothing
The nations of the world have not displayed much common sense when it comes to tackling climate change. They have regularly met, signed documents, congratulated themselves and then gone about their business as usual. There are targets which are confused, some measures which are ill planned and badly implemented, and a great deal of talking, but the atmospheric concentration of emissions, which is something they all aim to reduce, still grow year by year and the consequences are suffered by almost everyone on this planet.
Everyone seems to know what needs to be done for the long term benefit of those who live on earth, but no one will make any sacrifice for the future of our life on earth. The latest event which comprises the nations of the world visiting Doha in Qatar, illustrates this perfectly. 17,000 people will fly into to Doha and spend two weeks talking and talking and talking about climate change. I cannot understand why it is necessary for 17,000 people to do this. Presumably if each nation nominated four or five well qualified people to visit the event, there would be less than a thousand participants. The meetings could be streamed on the internet, thus enabling most of the press who feel it their duty to report on negotiations, to be able to write up the event from their own desks or homes, but the prospect of a nice fortnight in Doha is too much so we will have enough folk attending the climate change conference in Doha to fill a football stadium.
There is a lack of clarity in what the conference will achieve; many hands make light work but too many cooks spoil the broth and UN climate change conferences have been bedevilled by having too many cooks. They do not spoil the broth but create a broth that is without nourishment and substance.
Some environmentalists claim that Qatar, highly financially dependent upon exports of gas and oil, will be a bad host for the climate change conference, and will be concerned to direct the conference in a way that protects those economies, like their own, that depend on fossil fuel exploitation. I think that this claim is flawed. Those with great reserves of fossil fuel can best protect their economies by ensuring that the fossil fuel is not all spent at once; the British North Sea Gas, which was supposed to create a wealthy bonanza for the United Kingdom thirty five years ago, has largely gone and nthe money gained from the exploitation by the government in taxes has largely been wasted on patching up the effects of a declining economy in attempts to protect the poor from economic decline and in an attempt to buy the votes of the impoverished.
If you have a natural asset the logic way to exploit it is to use the proceeds of exploitation for long term investment, not for short term increasing in living standards. The Norwegians chose to spend their North Sea revenues on investment and not on short term measures, and as a result have a strong and sustainable economy.
I would expect that the Qataris would try to direct the conference to the long term view, and not the view through the microscope, but old habits die hard. The Western nations will be keen to ensure that climate change measures do not affect their own economies adversely, whatever the common sense of the position. The developing nations will be keen to ensure that their own climate change measures do not stand in the way of rapid economic growth. The undeveloped nations will try to gain some financial support because of the effects of climate change on them.
In particular the developed nations will wish to continue the present system of climate credits, enabling them to offset their emissions against perceived (and often imaginary) emissions savings of the past. That will, if agreed as is likely, constitute simply a way of continuing to emit greenhouse gases without consequence to anyone, except all those who live on the Earth.
It is hard usually to predict outcomes, but with the 17th Climate Change Conference in Doha prediction is easy: nothing of value will be achieved, but I am sure that the delegates will enjoy the break in the sun.
Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, energy, global warming, United Nations Climate Change Conference Tagged: Doha, Qatar 
2012-11-26 16:20:36
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