Earth on fire:Human Development Report

Developed countries should cut their carbon emissions at least by 80% by the year 2050, with 20-30% cuts by 2030, if the earth has to be saved from a complete environmental catastrophe, says the Human Development Report (HDR) 2007 released on Tuesday.

The report also calls for 20% cuts in carbon emissions by fast growing economies like India and China. These steps would stabilise CO2 equivalent concentration at 450 parts per million in the atmosphere (currently it is 379 ppm). The cost of this process would be only 1.6% of global GDP up to 2030.

To achieve these emission targets, the report proposes a set of policies which include carbon taxation, cap-and-trade programmes, reduction in emission quotas, encouraging renewable energy through economic incentives, stringent implementation of efficiency measures in industry, buildings and transport and support to breakthrough technologies for carbon capture and storage.

The United Nations Development Programme's annual report focuses on various aspects of human development like health, gender and poverty every year. The 2007 report makes a strong case for action on climate change which it calls the "defining human development issue of our generation".

Drawing upon the scientific evidence revealed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN report says that there is a small window of opportunity in this century for limiting the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Centigrade.

If this is not done, humanity will face a series of climatic changes that will wreak havoc on the planet. These will include flooding of coastal areas, crop failures, epidemics, severe water scarcity, and increase in natural disasters.
In perhaps the most severe indictment of the way governments have been handling the issue of climate change, this year’s report says "the gap between scientific evidence and political response remains large".

"The world's poor and future generations cannot afford the complacency and prevarication that continues to characterise international negotiations on climate change." it says, calling for a slew
of measures to hasten global cooperation on the issue.

Courtesy:timesofindia.com
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