Prague, 09/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - Drought, slump in tourism, rising water levels - the impact of climate change is jeopardising the development of ACP states (Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific). Ahead of the signing of a global climate deal in Copenhagen, MEPs and their counterparts from ACP states urge the EU and the international community to carry out a root-and-branch review of development cooperation to focus on low-carbon solutions and use financial resources and transfers of clean technology to help poor countries cope with climate change, which is hitting poorer countries the hardest despite the fact that they were not the countries that caused the problem in the first place.
This call for action and the idea of a tax on international trade to finance adaptation to climate change were the key messages in a resolution on the social and environmental impact of climate change in ACP states adopted by the Joint EU-ACP Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Prague on 9 April 2009. There are plenty of arguments to back up the resolution - if global warming reaches 3°Celsius, then this could cause water shortages for up to 1.8 billion people in Africa, leading to desertification, crop failures, famine, malnutrition and war over resources, explains the JPA. The strong reliance of ACP states on tourism and agriculture makes their economies especially vulnerable to the impact of climate change and seriously jeopardises the reaching of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The JPA explains that according to World Bank estimates, climate change is threatening 40% of international investment in poverty reduction in developing countries.
Co-rapporteur Josep Borrel (PES, Spain) said everything has already been said about climate change but little has been done. He said people were demonstrating collective short-sightedness because short-term interests were winning out over the need to take long-term action to avert catastrophe. Co-rapporteur Netty Baldeh (a parliamentarian from Gambia) said that that the big challenge the JPA resolution tries to address is increasing energy consumption in developing countries in a way that is compatible with reducing CO2 emissions, adding that ACP states had to work to reduce their emissions to a low level without making the same mistakes as the industrialised countries by using fossil fuels to develop their economies.
The JPA invites the European Commission and member states to join up the MDGs and climate change by incorporating the impact of global warming and adaptation into development policies. Likewise, the JPA wants decisions on reducing emissions and adapting to climate change to be integrated into the UN's climate change negotiations for post-2012.
Industrialised countries are urged to substantially increase their financial support for adaptation in ACP states and examine the option of using innovative financial mechanism, like international taxes on trade, national taxes on CO2 emissions and taxes on airline tickets. The JPA says the funding of adaptation measures must come on top of public development aid. The European Commission is invited to work on the practical details of a potential global mechanism for funding measures to cope with climate change and hugely increase the budget of the Global Climate Change Alliance. ACP countries are urged to explicitly include climate change adaptation measures in their national development plans and poverty reduction strategies.
On reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the JPA believes the European Commission and donor country governments should strengthen their partnerships with ACP governments to develop ambitious policies and projects to half deforestation and the deterioration of woodland, and to supply technologies to ensure sustainable management of forests in ACP states.
To make it easier to strike an ambitious and binding global deal in Copenhagen in December, the JPA calls for a more flexible approach to be taken to emerging economies in the light of the historic responsibility of industrialised countries in causing global warming.
The JPA urges developed countries to share their technological know-how with ACP states on low greenhouse gas emitting forms of energy, geological carbon capture and storage and the like, and to remove the barriers to trade in technology. The parliamentarians say that intellectual property and other rights on technological products should also be watered down.
The JPA points out that for every centimetre of rising sea levels, a million people are forced to leave their homes and move to urban areas in their own country or in Europe. The JPA urges the international community to introduce regulations to protect climate refugees and the asylum rights of people living on low-lying islands that may be lost to the oceans.
Nita Deerpalsing of Mauritius explained during the debate that the bad news was that development required greater use of energy although the good news was that technological developments and renewable energies made it possible to use clean energy and the ACP had to take its responsibilities on board and ensure they did not give up their right to development. She called on the Commission and the Council of the EU to fight for special and differentiated treatment for small island countries.
Eric Sorongope of the Central African Republic warned that if people did not watch out, the twenty-first century would be a time of wars over the occupation of land, as Darfur so terrifyingly demonstrated.
Ana Gomes (PES, Portugal), who has visited Darfur, said it was one of the first wars that can be put down to a lack of resources as a result of climate change. Convinced that the right to develop is closely connected with the use of clean, renewable energy resources and clean technology, Gomes said that solar energy is not being used to a sufficient extent despite being a solution that can have a spectacular impact on the standard of living in developing countries and make great strides in combatting climate change. She said people living in ACP states should pressurise their governments to call for technology transfers that could have a huge impact on housing and transport. Marie Joseph Achille Tapsoba, a Burkina Faso parliamentarian, stressed the crucial role that local communities could play in drawing up strategies for adapting to climate change because they are in the best position to carry out awareness-raising campaigns and encourage the exchange of best practice on the ground. Marie-Hélène Aubert (Greens, France) said that despite the great statements and international conferences, greenhouse gas emissions are still rising. In the view of Eija-Riitta Korhola (EPP-ED, Finland), “Country specific climate change targets launch each country into a fight for its own survival. They should be replaced by industry specific ones, per tonne of production, so as to reward players with the lowest emissions and avoid distorting markets.” Mentioning water shortages and floods, Joseph Mugambe, a parliamentarian from Uganda, explained: “Lack of water is a problem, too much is a problem and water at the wrong time is a problem. Farmers end up losing whole crops, malaria spreads, bridges and animals are washed away, and schools are destroyed.” Christa Klass (EPP-ED, Germany) said that the impact of climate change could destabilise society and constitute a threat to world peace, and industrialised countries should therefore be more innovative in their search for solutions and the solutions should not be ignored by developing countries. (A.N./transl.fl)