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Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume Two
Spring 2003
Clean Development to Address
Global Climate Change, Inequality, and Environmental Rights - Page
1
by Kara Scharwath
In the last decade, it has become globally accepted that climate change, due to the increased human production of greenhouse gases, is in fact taking place. International concern has culminated in several agreements aimed at mitigating the problem, such as the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the U. N. Conference on Environment and Development, and the Kyoto Protocol, through which countries have banded together to address global climate change. There are significant inequalities inherent in the issue of global climate change, such as in who will suffer the effects and who created the problem. In his article, "Global Inequality and Climate Change," J. T. Roberts analyzes the injustices of the issue and concludes that future development in industrializing countries must be "decarbonized." He says, "The innocent are suffering the effects of something (our consumption) from which they drew little or no benefit. As members of the small island states whose cultures are likely to be decimated have pointed out, to understand the links and yet willfully allow the destruction of cultures and people seems plainly immoral" (502). Although they have done little to contribute to the problem in the past, developing countries will play a significant role in efforts to control global climate change in the coming decades because of their rapidly increasing carbon emissions. The desire and efforts of these countries to develop in the same ways that industrialized nations have, in order to improve their quality of life, is an issue that poses many difficulties to fairly and effectively addressing the issue of global climate change. For equity's sake, these countries should have opportunities to develop their economies, but the prospect of the enactment of global climate change agreements to control carbon emissions threatens their desired economic prosperity. Shari Collins-Chobanian discusses different aspects of and issues surrounding "environmental rights" in her essay, "Beyond Sax and Welfare Interests: A Case for Environmental Rights." Ideas about the role of economic wealth and the market economy in "environmental rights" will be used here to analyze the inequalities of the issue of global climate change and proposed solutions to the problem, such as the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Because society is based on a market economy, clean investment through public-private partnerships using the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol is the most efficient way to address the problem of increasing greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and its contribution to global warming. This type of investment effectively encourages developing countries to participate in the agreement because it addresses their development and equity concerns and provides them with increased access to that which is necessary for living. However, creation of a market economy results in an unsustainable lifestyle. So this solution for developing countries is a short-term one, and will eventually result in the deprivation of that which it was intended to ensure: access to a successful livelihood, which is considered to be an environmental right.
The Kyoto Protocol is the global treaty aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions internationally in order to prevent the negative consequences of global warming. Although developing countries have had a negligible impact on the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to date, they play a significant part in international efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions because their emissions are progressively becoming a larger proportion of globally emitted gases. The inequality of circumstances between developed and developing countries in negotiating the terms of the Protocol can be illustrated by the fact that developed countries have put pressure on less-developed countries to lower their emissions. Despite the fact that less-developed countries have not contributed significantly to the problem, they are being pressured to participate in binding agreements and to agree to place limits on their emissions because it is unlikely that reductions by other countries alone will be sufficient to solve the problem. Roberts asserts,
It is true that environmentally speaking, one cannot handle this problem of global warming without addressing the boom of emissions in the developing countries. This point has been seized upon by the United States-headquartered oil and coal industries, who have mobilized think tanks, journalists, scientists, and senators to block any progress on the Kyoto treaty until the poor nations also agree to limits on their carbon emissions. (502)
This impediment to the Kyoto process has essentially led to gridlock. Real progress has been limited. Developing countries are concerned that limits put on their greenhouse gas emissions would limit their prospects for development, and as a result they will not agree to participate. Should they be expected to? To require, through limits on carbon emissions, that these nations stop at a level of development that more industrialized nations would never consider returning to seems hypocritical, and is, according to Collins-Chobanian, a violation of their basic rights. During negotiations, China's lead negotiator said, "In the developed world only two people ride in a car, and yet you want us to give up riding on a bus" (Roberts 506). This claim really hits on the injustice of the situation. Is it fair to ask the people of these countries to do without what people in the developed world take for granted? Shouldn't they have the right to develop their economies in the same ways that other countries strive to?
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