Minister 'gloomy' over climate talks

Minister 'gloomy' over climate talks

It couldtake more natural disasters to push the world into taking concrete steps to tackle climate change, believes Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan.

"I just returned from Warsaw, and I am pessimistic," he said on Monday in his first remarks since attending the United Nations talks, which ended last Saturday in Poland.

"My own sense is that at some point the world will face enough disasters, and people will come to their senses and put political pressure on their leaders to do the right thing. It's just that it may not happen quickly enough," said Dr Balakrishnan.

He gave this update on his trip during his opening address at the Responsible Business Forum on Sustainable Development at Marina Bay Sands.

The Warsaw climate talks started two weeks ago under the shadow of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated large areas in the Philippines and claiming at least 5,000 lives.

The goal of the talks was to forge an agreement requiring substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, which are responsible for global warming, from all major economies, as well as commitments from poorer countries.

But the talks floundered, partly because emerging giants India and China insisted that only developed nations should be bound by the commitments, whereas developing nations like them should be expected to only "enhance (their) actions" to reduce emissions.

In a last-minute compromise, governments settled on a watered-down agreement, in which countries should set out plans to curb emissions "well in advance" of a 2015 Paris summit.

Other parts of the agreement involved helping poorer countries cope with climate change, and tackling deforestation.

Dr Balakrishnan blamed the outcome - widely slammed as falling short of expectations - on political leaders afraid of losing votes at home, as well as countries squabbling like children over who should shoulder the responsibility for tackling climate change.

The minister said: "The most potent source of bickering among children is 'it's not fair... he took the biggest portion, he benefited more'... We probably will spend all our time arguing about fairness and not getting enough time resolving to do what is necessary."

Earlier Monday, two international groups announced a project to get businesses to value nature in their decisions, literally.

The Singapore-based Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Business Coalition will work with the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation to come up with a standardised "natural capital protocol" by 2015 to help firms put a monetary value on, say, forests' ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and so the damage from climate change.

"For businesses to be viable in the long term, the ecosystems and resources they depend on must be maintained," they said, and valuing such natural capital will lead to better decisions and sustainable business models.


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