United Nations Radio

Carbon emissions

PRES: As the Copenhagen Climate Change conference looms closer, the scientific community has been working in earnest to find ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. Leading climate scientist Professor Joachim Shellnhuber believes the best strategy for slowing down climate change would be a global carbon emissions market. Kit Cockburn found out why:

COCKBURN: According to Professor Hans Joachim Shellnhuber 40 years, 750 million tonnes of carbon and 2 degrees Celsius are all that separates the world from environmental catastrophe. The eminent climate scientist is advocating the creation of a global CO2 trading mechanism based on per capita emissions rights, as the most compelling strategy for curbing climate change:

SHELLNHUBER: There is no national solution to the problem there is just an international solution to the problem. Because there are a number of countries that have not exhausted their environmental space, like India and without their cooperation industrialized countries cannot solve the problem anymore. So a global carbon market is the only solution to the problem.

COCKBURN: The model has garnered support from the majority of climate scientists, not least because of the development opportunities it provides for emerging economies. Developing countries, proven to have low emissions profiles, could make $100 Billion dollars a year selling emissions rights to industrialized countries. Professor Shellnhuber explains:

SHELLNHUBER: The charm of this approach is that the development is not handed over as a gift to the countries in the south, but it is based on their rights to be part of the global family and to use the environmental space together.

COCKBURN: Until now, resentment harbored by developing countries, who feel their rights to develop are challenged by existing climate change policy, has undermined meaningful discussion. This was demonstrated most recently by the brief boycott of African countries at preliminary climate talks in Barcelona. Gert Rosenthal, the Permanent Representative for Guatemala highlighted the dilemma:

ROSENTHAL: There is still a deep seeded suspicion that the developed countries have already had their shot at development and they were the guys who polluted the universe, and now we are told that we cannot continue polluting and therefore you're probably compromising your potential for development.

COCKBURN: With a renewed emphasis on protecting development rights, however, there may still be room for rapprochement. The Permanent Representative of Namibia reflected the mood of the room when he showed his enthusiasm for Shellnhuber's model:

PRM NAMIBIA: If we take the historical responsibilities, the right to development and so forth, this model is a very good starting point. I think to me it's fairer than the current carbon trading mechanism and it can be adjusted. And if propagated correctly I think it could go a long way in defending the rights of developing countries to emissions, and I don't hope we are going to increase our emissions, but at least to derive income from the lack of emission that is characterizing most of our countries.

For UN radio, this is Kit Cockburn.

(duration: 2'40")