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The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanon and other developing
countries should combine climate change mitigation policies with
greater steps to enter the sustainable development market, even as the
world struggles to recover from the global financial crisis, a recent
United Nations report has urged. Climate change mitigation does not
spell the end for economic growth in developing nations, found the 2009
Trade and Development Report, released last week by the UN Conference
on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). “Experiences from both developed and
developing countries show that many synergies are possible between
greenhouse gas emission reductions and development objectives,” it
said.
Even as the
financial crisis batters the world’s economies, “another pressing
preoccupation for peoples and governments around the world continues to
be the threat of global warming that implies considerable risks for
living conditions and developmental progress,” said Bahaa ElKoussy,
Director of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC), at the
report’s regional launch at the UN Economic and Social Commission for
Western Asia (ESCWA) headquarters in Beirut.
The
report acknowledged developed nations had primary responsibility in the
fight against climate change, but stressed that developing countries
also had to implement series measures towards forging low-carbon
economies.
It
said the need for decisive global action was particularly urgent given
the surging emissions in Western Asia and other developing regions. “In
developing and transition economies … greenhouse gases are on a steeply
rising trend,” the report warned. Carbon dioxide emissions in North
Africa and the Middle East are increasing at the third fastest rate in
the world, after South Asia and East Asia, the UN has said.
The
western Asian region is at particular risk from climate change: the UN
Development Program’s 2007-2008 Global Human Development Report noted
Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, and North Africa could be those in the region
worst affected.
In
Lebanon, the effects of climate change can already be felt, with
experts recording Lebanon’s annual precipitation falling in shorter
periods and estimating the national average summer temperature to
increase by 1.2 degrees centigrade.
The
country’s famous Cedar trees, which rely heavily on frost and snow, are
already feeling the burn of hotter weather, leading the International
Union for Conservation of Nature to add them to their “Red List” of
“heavily threatened” species.
In
addition, demand for water will increase by some 80 percent by 2025 as
Lebanon’s population almost doubles in size to around 7.6 million. The
population boom, together with higher temperatures, will put additional
strain on the country’s already stretched water supply. The problem is
now so severe Lebanon’s Energy and Water Resources Ministry warned in
2007 the country could have a water deficit by 2010.
But
Western Asia can resist climate change by shifting towards means of
production and consumption patterns that place fewer burdens on the
earth’s atmosphere than the current greenhouse gas-intensive ones, the
report said.
Developing
countries can prosper by contributing to innovating in climate
protection processes adapted to local conditions, providing
environmentally friendly goods and the development of clean
technologies, the report said. Nations could also discourage harmful
emissions through taxation and offering incentives on the use of
alternative and renewable energies.
“The
coming phase will witness an overhaul of economic and financial
policies in the world,” said ESCWA’s Chief of Economic Development and
Globalization Division, Nabil Safwat. “Our region cannot be an idle
observer, but should participate in this process and take part in the
solution.”
The UN
report also said the international community could support developing
countries by giving them “policy space” in relevant global agreements
on climate change, trade, and intellectual property rights.
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