The Daily Star
BEIRUT:
"We don't need more conferences or reports to tell us [about climate
change] anymore, but rather we need a drastic change in the lifestyles
of modern human beings," Habib Maalouf, head of the Lebanese
Environment Party, told journalists at a news conference in the
Movenpick Hotel in Raoche on Tuesday. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) organized the news conference to launch the 2007 Human Development Report. The
report, which has been published yearly by the UNDP since 1990, this
year focused on the theme "Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in
a Divided World." Habib
Maalouf, in the spirit of the theme of the report, said that "the human
community is environmentally connected and we must work together to
help ourselves." Claiming
climate change to be the defining human development challenge of the
21st century, the report says that climate change is not some
futuristic scenario but rather is already upon us all. The report cites
as evidence the increased occurrences of destabilizing weather events,
like droughts, floods and violent storms. "The
reluctance and weakness of human beings to cope with environmental
catastrophes," Maalouf said, "makes us see that both the developed and
the developing world are affected equally." A
senior environmental adviser to the UNDP, Iyad Abumoghli, pointed out
that carbon emissions are "relatively high" in the Middle East, due in
part to an absence of forested areas and the significant amount waste
produced in the region. Although
the United States is a leading global producer of global emissions,
Abumoghli showed that based on per capita calculations, many Middle
Eastern countries are also among the world's worst polluters. Abumoghli
also highlighted data that predict a dramatic rise in the Mediterranean
Sea level if greenhouse gas emission continue unabated - a development
that would leave no country that borders the coast unaffected. The
UNDP report issued a challenge to all of humanity, from political and
business leaders to individual citizens, to "undertake prompt and
strong collective action based on shared values and a shared vision." "We
all have a role to play in combating climate change," said Marta
Ruedas, UN resident coordinator and UNDP representative in Lebanon. Lebanon,
while not a major polluter (accounting for 0.1 percent of global
emissions, according to the report), does have a say internationally,
Ruedas said. She added that Lebanon's best contribution in the fight
against climate change should be international advocacy. "Lebanon
is a small country, but there is a lot for the Lebanese to do," Ruedas
said. "The United States and China need to change their climate
policies, or the world impact will not be so great." "It's
important to put pressure on the [Lebanese] government to pressure
other governments, particularly the United States, China and India, to
sign environmental protocols helping to fight against climate change,"
she added. However, in
Lebanon, much like most of the conflict-plagued Arab world, climate
issues are rarely made a national priority. While repeatedly mentioned
in Western media, environmental topics are regularly drowned out in a
region where most of the news coverage is focused on politics and
violence. Roger Melki, who
attended the conference as a representative of Finance Minister Jihad
Azour, said "this report focuses on an issue that we are not fully
aware of here in Lebanon, it hasn't really entered our consciousness.
But it is something we need to seriously address." Salim
Khoury, director general of Henkel International, addressed the leading
role that the private sector can play in fighting climate change. He
urged leading members of the business community to question whether
government policy includes an effective climate strategy and whether it
encourages voluntary action and progressive thinking. Khoury
said he believes that Lebanese companies are among the "most
imaginative, most innovative, the most creative in the region." He
added that by attracting "committed young people," local companies can
provide "one of the most powerful levers today for corporate social
responsibility." "We should
all confess that it is impossible for us to achieve our dreams and
ambitions by being selfish. Let us all work hand in hand to face the
climate change challenges and make the difference we all aim to reach,"
he concluded. The report
also includes the UNDP's annual Human Development Index, which, "looks
beyond GDP to a broader definition of well-being." It measures three
factors: "living a long and healthy life" (measured by life
expectancy), "being educated" (measured by adult literacy and
enrollment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level) and "having a
decent standard of living" (measured by purchasing power parity and
income). Lebanon ranks 88th among the 177 countries with data.
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