SA works well on climate change
Mar. 15th, 2007 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nairiporter Climate change expert hails SA
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=14&art_id=vn20070315120700444C863974
The world's leading climate change economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, is "very impressed" with how South Africa's cabinet ministers are grappling with the problems caused by global warming, or climate change.
And while he notes that Africa will bear the brunt of the impacts of unavoidable climate change over the next 20 years or so - because of its geographical location, the poverty of many of its people and the physical structure of wind movements - he predicts that South Africa will play "a big part" in new international negotiations that could help reduce long-term impacts.
Saying he was more optimistic than a year ago - although this did not mean he was generally optimistic about the world resolving climate change problems - Sir Nicholas said: "I do think there is a chance to move forward now in a way not seen in the recent past."
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=14&art_id=vn20070315120700444C863974
The world's leading climate change economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, is "very impressed" with how South Africa's cabinet ministers are grappling with the problems caused by global warming, or climate change.
And while he notes that Africa will bear the brunt of the impacts of unavoidable climate change over the next 20 years or so - because of its geographical location, the poverty of many of its people and the physical structure of wind movements - he predicts that South Africa will play "a big part" in new international negotiations that could help reduce long-term impacts.
Saying he was more optimistic than a year ago - although this did not mean he was generally optimistic about the world resolving climate change problems - Sir Nicholas said: "I do think there is a chance to move forward now in a way not seen in the recent past."
He is the author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, a 700-page report released in October, which discusses the impact of climate change and global warming on the world economy.
Although not the first report of its kind, it is by far the most significant and has been widely discussed internationally.
Its major conclusions are that 1 percent of global GDP (gross domestic product) must be invested each year in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change, and that failure to do so could risk global GDP being up to 20 percent lower.
Sir Nicholas - one of the world's most distinguished economists, head of the British government's economic service and its adviser on the economics of climate change and development - is in South Africa at the invitation of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, who chairs the inter-ministerial cabinet committee on climate change.
On Wednesday, Sir Nicholas made a presentation on his report to the cabinet, and later told a media briefing at the SA Weather Service's global atmosphere watch station at Cape Point how impressed he had been with the cabinet ministers' responses.
He pointed out that the average global temperature was already 0.70C above the pre-industrial era, and that the world was committed to dealing with a further temperature rise of up to 20C.
However, a "business as usual" approach could lead to a rise of as much as 50C.
"That would be an extraordinary change - as much as the last ice age when Canada was under one mile of ice.
"That would change the physical geography of the world ... Large parts of the world would become very difficult for human existence.
"That kind of risk we can no longer afford to run."
Sir Nicholas stressed that, even with strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for global warming, adaptation had to be a crucial part of nations' strategies.
Urgent international action required included pricing mechanisms so that those responsible would pay for damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions; support for technology development and economic incentives for effective action; and combating deforestation.
Van Schalkwyk said that even though South Africa was a developing nation it was ready to accept its responsibilities for combating climate change "as a developmental investment in future generations".
Although not the first report of its kind, it is by far the most significant and has been widely discussed internationally.
Its major conclusions are that 1 percent of global GDP (gross domestic product) must be invested each year in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change, and that failure to do so could risk global GDP being up to 20 percent lower.
Sir Nicholas - one of the world's most distinguished economists, head of the British government's economic service and its adviser on the economics of climate change and development - is in South Africa at the invitation of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, who chairs the inter-ministerial cabinet committee on climate change.
On Wednesday, Sir Nicholas made a presentation on his report to the cabinet, and later told a media briefing at the SA Weather Service's global atmosphere watch station at Cape Point how impressed he had been with the cabinet ministers' responses.
He pointed out that the average global temperature was already 0.70C above the pre-industrial era, and that the world was committed to dealing with a further temperature rise of up to 20C.
However, a "business as usual" approach could lead to a rise of as much as 50C.
"That would be an extraordinary change - as much as the last ice age when Canada was under one mile of ice.
"That would change the physical geography of the world ... Large parts of the world would become very difficult for human existence.
"That kind of risk we can no longer afford to run."
Sir Nicholas stressed that, even with strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for global warming, adaptation had to be a crucial part of nations' strategies.
Urgent international action required included pricing mechanisms so that those responsible would pay for damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions; support for technology development and economic incentives for effective action; and combating deforestation.
Van Schalkwyk said that even though South Africa was a developing nation it was ready to accept its responsibilities for combating climate change "as a developmental investment in future generations".
