Going around in circles on climate change is not an option

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,

Fifteen thousand delegates descended on Cancun, conferred, and left with an agreement that will not save the world from the effects of climate change, though it rescued the negotiating process. That we should be relieved is testament to the soft bigotry of low expectations on what once was billed as the greatest moral challenge of our time. 

Britain’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, described the summit as a “turning point”. He also said that, in addition to the turning points of Kyoto, Bali and Copenhagen, the world is going around in circles. 

Editor, the science of climate change is robust enough to have withstood a year of searching scrutiny by ideological and self-serving skeptics. But agreement on the science does not translate into agreement on policy, or trump the politics of climate change and global warming. 

So, did Cancun produce anything to be proud of, now that there has yet again been no binding agreement? There was something, in fact. India has emerged as a new global power on climate change. The country’s environment minister, Ramesh Jairam, was instrumental in breaking a deadlock over how to verify nations’ climate actions and, for the first time, said that his country would consider a binding deal in the future. 

Ramesh said that India needed to change with the times, as it seeks a greater global role and the world inches towards a new, comprehensive agreement on fighting climate change.

If only other stubborn countries, including China and the U.S., can also come to the same conclusion, there will be hope for the world. Time is running out, and going around in circles is not an option. 

Yours sincerely,

 Michael C Reid

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