Today's TVH
BALI, Indonesia - Surrounded by rising seas and short of water, the
glitzy city state of Singapore has built one of the world's largest
desalination plants and is paying Dutch experts tens of millions of
dollars to devise ways to protect their island.
Bangladesh,
meanwhile, is digging out from a cyclone that killed at least 3,200 and
left millions homeless. The impoverished country wants to build up its
coastlines to ward off the potentially devastating impacts of global
warming, but has no money.
The disparities between the rich and
poor in adapting to encroaching oceans and the floods and droughts that
are expected to worsen with rising temperatures have dominated the U.N.
climate conference on Indonesia's resort island of Bali.
Many
delegates touched Wednesday on the inequalities in both the levels of
assistance and impacts of climate change when they spoke at the opening
of high-level talks.
The haves — which pump the lion's share of
pollutants into the atmosphere — are arguing about emission targets and
high-tech solutions. The have-nots — which contribute little to global
warming but are disproportionately among the victims — need tens of
billions of dollars to save their sinking islands, to help farmers
adapt and to relocate those in the path of destruction.
"The
issue of equity is crucial. Climate affects us all, but does not affect
us all equally," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates.
"Those who are least able to cope are being hit hardest. Those who have
done the least to cause the problem bear the gravest consequences."
The
United Nations Development Program says 98 percent of the 262 million
people hit by disasters from 2000 to 2004 came from impoverished
countries, while the money to prevent disasters in the United Kingdom
alone was six times what was spent in all poor countries.
The
number of people affected by natural disasters has quadrupled over the
past two decades — from famines in Africa to floods in South Asia,
according to Oxfam International, though it is not clear how much of
that is due to global warming.
But with scientists predicting
that temperatures could rise by as much as 5 degrees Celsius — 9
degrees Fahrenheit — things are only expected to get worse.
The
U.N. predicts that about 1.8 billion of the most vulnerable people
across the globe will be hit by water shortages, 600 million more will
go hungry and 32 million will be displaced by droughts and floods.
"Poor
countries have really urgent priorities — putting food on the table,
accessing water, health care," said Antonio Hill, a climate change
expert with Oxfam. "On all these issues, climate change is making these
things worse."
From Venice to New Orleans, the West is already taking action to fight climate change within their borders.
Canada
said Monday it would spend $85.4 million on adaptation measures,
including tens of millions of dollars to help its Inuit communities
adapt to warming Arctic climate.
The low-lying Netherlands —
which for centuries has built a vast network of canal systems,
experience it is now passing on — is spending an additional $25 billion
to improve its water defenses. Italy is doing the same.
Singapore,
meanwhile, has built a 139 million desalination plant to boost its
domestic water supply and teamed up with the Dutch engineering firm
Delft Hydraulics as part of a more than $208 million effort to become a
hub for climate change research — much as it has for biotech and the
medical industry.
The tiny city-state is itself vulnerable to
global warming, but also realizes that "there is great potential to
make money," said Peter Ng, who is part of the Dutch partnership called
Singapore Delft Water Alliance. "If we play our cards right and do what
we do well, other countries will come to us for help."
Poor nations, in the meantime, are doing what little they can.
Some
are creating early warning systems, building bamboo storm shelters on
stilts or making plans to relocate island communities. But the money
often does not reach villages hardest hit by worsening floods and the
rising seas.
In Kaoakola located along Bangladesh's Jamuna
River, for instance, Mohammad Sheikh complains he has been forced to
move his house three times because of increased floods.
"We're
very poor. We can't afford it," the 70-year-old said, adding that he
has been forced to become a day laborer after his 300 acres were lost
to flooding. "The river, the floods have taken everything from me."
The
Maldives — a popular tourist destination made up of more than 1,000
low-lying islands — also exemplifies the limits of good intentions in
developing countries. It has rolled out plans to move communities to a
few, well-protected islands, but so far has only been able to come up
with the money to build up one such island.
"Climate change
has become a daily reality in the Maldives and other small island
states," said the country's president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, recalling
how his islands were being hit by storm surges and erosion while fish
were dying of mysterious diseases.
Even if the maximum suggested assistance is approved, it won't cover the costs.
Up
to $300 million will be available annually if a U.N. adaptation fund is
created in Bali as expected, and up to another $1.5 billion a year if
an international climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which
expires in 2012, is approved.
That still falls far short of
the nearly $86 billion the UNDP estimates is needed annually by 2015,
prompting some to suggest that additional mechanisms, such as a tax on
bunker fuels or, as Oxfam demands, funding targets for industrialized
countries.
Impoverished nations are also demanding a
post-Kyoto agreement offer increased access to technology for
adaptation and assurances the money for climate response won't be taken
from already meager development aid.
"The money they put up
for this adaptation fund is peanuts. It's nothing," said Khandaker
Rashedul Haque, a Ministry of Environment comparing his problems in
Bangladesh to those of New Orleans, which is still recovering from
Hurricane Katrina.
"Why are they putting up a few billion for a city like New Orleans when they are putting up a few million for the entire world?"
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