WITHOUT doubt, one of the most important global problems we face is climate change.
Clearly, the solution to this problem is most pressing and cries out for cooperation.

It is true that those most responsible for the present situation in which we find ourselves are the developed world. They have been generating a huge amount of greenhouse gases in production of commodities.

QUOTE:It is the developed world that has exploited most of the resources of the Third World. Huge companies involved in timber and mining have exploited the forests and dug deep into the bowels of the earth to extract minerals.

The natural wealth of poor countries has been used to enrich the developed world. That is continuing even today, despite all that we know.

The drive to make even more money has pushed them to burn the most polluting substances for energy. Coal has been used for centuries in the developed countries to produce energy. It is very cheap, but it was burnt in such a way that it has contributed significantly to poisoning the atmosphere.

They have exploited their own natural resources, cutting down their forests and extracting minerals from the earth. These, too, were mostly done without consideration of the environment. As a result, they have contributed to the degradation the world now has to cope with.

This, however, is not all.

It is the developed world that has exploited most of the resources of the Third World. Huge companies involved in timber and mining have exploited the forests and dug deep into the bowels of the earth to extract minerals.

The natural wealth of poor countries has been used to enrich the developed world. That is continuing even today, despite all that we know.

Be that as it may, it is also true that even though the poor countries have least responsibility for climate change, they have to play a part in the solution of this problem.

QUOTE:In promoting our own country’s needs, we must also promote the interests of the world. We have passed the stage when the development of any part of the world must be at the expense of another. We must all grow together.

To do otherwise will be to invite an ecological disaster with untold negative consequences.

Indeed, to borrow a line from the famous song ‘We are the World’ — “we are saving our own lives.”

That leads me to look at the proposal that countries with standing forests should be compensated for preserving these, for this can make an immediate impact on the environmental situation.

If countries with significant forests begin to cut them down, this will result in the release of huge amounts of carbon into the already hard-pressed atmosphere. This could be disastrous.

Clearly, therefore, we have to find the right balance between environmental protection and environmental growth.

Those who are against preservation appear to have lost focus. This does not mean that economic development would stop. Indeed, it can be accelerated.

For instance, investing in better energy policies would mean investment in projects such as hydro-electricity, solar and wind energy production. It could also include bio-gas and bio-fuels co-generation, etc.

Such projects can also create massive growth in the energy sector, which would be able to attract investments because of clean and even cheaper fuels.

Of course, this will have beneficial effects for both developed and developing countries. For developed countries are far advanced and are more on the cutting edge of research and development of new technologies. They would gain a lot by exporting these to the developing world.

The developing world has the possibility of moving quickly to advanced technologies and to avoid using outdated methods, even though cheap, to develop its energy resources.

The situation in our world demands that we create new types of relationships.

In the past, relations in the world were based on gaining greater advantages, exploiting each other and always seeking to get the upper hand. It was based on greed and the crazy drive for greater and greater profits and led to countries hiding new technologies from each other just to gain greater advantages.

That policy has landed us in the situation we are facing today where mankind can be committing collective suicide if nations stubbornly hold on to positions of seeking economic advantage.

The ecological crisis must force us to re-examine those relations and I submit to change them.

We need more cooperation; we need to break out of narrow nationalism and embrace a more patriotic, internationalist approach to problems. We must be conscious that the alternative to trust and cooperation is disaster.

In promoting our own country’s needs, we must also promote the interests of the world. We have passed the stage when the development of any part of the world must be at the expense of another. We must all grow together.

To do otherwise will be to invite an ecological disaster with untold negative consequences.