Wealth concerns main factor at Bali meet: Economists
Today Online 30 Nov 07;
BEIJING — Climate change has become one of the hottest topics across the Asia-Pacific, but national and personal wealth remain the overwhelmingly dominant concerns, economists and environmentalists say.
"In Asia, people are becoming more aware about global warming, but economic development is still by far the top priority," said Mr Andy Xie, a Shanghai-based economist and former head of Morgan Stanley's Asia Pacific division.
On a macro level, the roaring economies of the world's two most populous nations, China and India, are using increasing amounts of coal and other fossil fuels that emit the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change.
Smaller nations such as Vietnam, which is particularly vulnerable to climate change due to its long swathe of low-lying coastline and sensitive wetlands, is similarly developing a ferocious appetite for fossil fuels.
"If countries like China and India keep going like this, the consequences will be enormous," said Greenpeace's China climate and energy campaign manager Yang Ailun.
Meanwhile, Indonesia — host of the United Nations conference that starts on Monday with the aim of launching a global roadmap for action on climate change — remains the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
Its emissions largely stem from a different source: The massive destruction of its carbon-storing rainforests and peatlands to make way for farm plantations and quench the global thirst for timber.
Rainforests elsewhere in South-east Asia, such as Malaysia and Myanmar, are similarly being destroyed.
Even in Japan — Asia's richest country that has taken a global lead in curbing greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012 — there are concerns that not enough is being done.
Ms Kimiko Hirata, director of Japanese environmental group Kiko Network, said: "The government has discussed a lot but it has not taken effective measures to cut actual greenhouse gas emissions."
Ms Hirata praised a law under which companies are required to produce more energy-efficient home appliances. "But it is pointless if you use two or three efficient air-conditioners at the same time," she qualified.
At the UN climate change conference in Bali next week, developing countries will continue to push the onus onto rich nations for the fight against global warming — quite rightly, according to Mr Xie and many green campaigners.
Countries in Asia are being urged to find a development model that does not mimic the West, with some looking to China as a potential role model as it seeks to build up its renewable energy industries.
"If China can develop in a sustainable way, it will be a great example for developing countries," said Mr Yang. — AFP
