Related News
Home » Opinion » Foreign Views
G8 leaders must act on climate change, poverty and hunger
By Ban Ki-moon |
July 7, 2009, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ALL politics are local, goes the old aphorism. Yet today, we can say that all problems are global.
As world leaders meet at the G8 Summit in Italy this week, they will have to update their politics to grapple with problems that none of them can solve alone.
The last two years have witnessed a cascade of interconnected crises: financial panic, rising food and oil prices, climate shocks, a flu pandemic, and more.
Political cooperation to address these problems is not a mere nicety. It has become a global necessity.
The intensity of global interconnectedness is stunning. The H1N1 influenza virus was identified in a Mexican village in April. By now it has reached more than 100 countries.
The effects of the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September were transmitted worldwide within days: even the most remote villages in Africa, Asia, and Latin America were feeling the shock of reduced remittance income, canceled investment projects, and falling export prices.
In the same way, climate shocks in parts of Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Americas in recent years contributed to soaring food prices that hit the poor and created instability and hardships in dozens of countries.
No nation or world leader can solve these problems alone. True, politicians answer to local voters. But those voters want solutions that can't be achieved within any country's own borders.
Special obligation
This is the reason why I am calling on the G8 to act on a set of crucial issues over the coming 12 months.
Some are within the purview of the G8 countries; others require global agreements by all members of the United Nations.
Either way, given their past commitments, the size of their economies, their countries' disproportionate share of greenhouse-gas emissions, and their responsibilities as donor countries, the G8 leaders have a special obligation to lead.
First, the G8 and other major emitters of greenhouse gases must intensify their work to seal a deal at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
That agreement must be scientifically rigorous, equitable, ambitious, and exact. Achieving the goal of limiting the global mean temperature increase to two degrees Celsius will require nations to cut carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050.
The G8 and other industrialized countries must take the lead by committing to emissions cuts of at least 80 percent from 1990 levels.
Any effective accord must help vulnerable countries - especially the poorest of the poor and the highly vulnerable arid and island nations - adapt to climate change.
If the Copenhagen negotiations are to be a success, world leaders must do more than talk about leadership. They must show it.
That is why I am calling all world leaders to the UN on September 22 for a global summit on climate change. I expect them to be there. Our future is at stake.
Deeds, not words
Second, the G8 should take specific steps to honor long-standing but unfilled pledges of support to poor countries to help them achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Back in 2005, the G8 itself promised to double aid to Africa by 2010. It is now more than US$20 billion per year short of that pledge, with just one year to go.
The very credibility of the G8 is on the line, as the world's poorest nations are squeezed by financial crisis, climate shocks, and unfulfilled aid promises, all beyond their control.
Third, the G8 should focus urgent attention on the intensifying global hunger crisis. The UN estimates that the number of chronically hungry people has recently increased by around 150 million people, and that the world's hungry now stand at one billion.
This shocking reversal of progress on food security is the result of many factors: climate shocks, crop failures, and, of course, the global financial crisis itself.
Scientists have sent the world's leaders a message: the poor and food-deficit regions can grow much more food if their smallholder farmers get the improved seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation they need to boost productivity.
(The author is Secretary-General of the United Nations. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2009.www.project-syndicate.org.)
As world leaders meet at the G8 Summit in Italy this week, they will have to update their politics to grapple with problems that none of them can solve alone.
The last two years have witnessed a cascade of interconnected crises: financial panic, rising food and oil prices, climate shocks, a flu pandemic, and more.
Political cooperation to address these problems is not a mere nicety. It has become a global necessity.
The intensity of global interconnectedness is stunning. The H1N1 influenza virus was identified in a Mexican village in April. By now it has reached more than 100 countries.
The effects of the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September were transmitted worldwide within days: even the most remote villages in Africa, Asia, and Latin America were feeling the shock of reduced remittance income, canceled investment projects, and falling export prices.
In the same way, climate shocks in parts of Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Americas in recent years contributed to soaring food prices that hit the poor and created instability and hardships in dozens of countries.
No nation or world leader can solve these problems alone. True, politicians answer to local voters. But those voters want solutions that can't be achieved within any country's own borders.
Special obligation
This is the reason why I am calling on the G8 to act on a set of crucial issues over the coming 12 months.
Some are within the purview of the G8 countries; others require global agreements by all members of the United Nations.
Either way, given their past commitments, the size of their economies, their countries' disproportionate share of greenhouse-gas emissions, and their responsibilities as donor countries, the G8 leaders have a special obligation to lead.
First, the G8 and other major emitters of greenhouse gases must intensify their work to seal a deal at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
That agreement must be scientifically rigorous, equitable, ambitious, and exact. Achieving the goal of limiting the global mean temperature increase to two degrees Celsius will require nations to cut carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050.
The G8 and other industrialized countries must take the lead by committing to emissions cuts of at least 80 percent from 1990 levels.
Any effective accord must help vulnerable countries - especially the poorest of the poor and the highly vulnerable arid and island nations - adapt to climate change.
If the Copenhagen negotiations are to be a success, world leaders must do more than talk about leadership. They must show it.
That is why I am calling all world leaders to the UN on September 22 for a global summit on climate change. I expect them to be there. Our future is at stake.
Deeds, not words
Second, the G8 should take specific steps to honor long-standing but unfilled pledges of support to poor countries to help them achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Back in 2005, the G8 itself promised to double aid to Africa by 2010. It is now more than US$20 billion per year short of that pledge, with just one year to go.
The very credibility of the G8 is on the line, as the world's poorest nations are squeezed by financial crisis, climate shocks, and unfulfilled aid promises, all beyond their control.
Third, the G8 should focus urgent attention on the intensifying global hunger crisis. The UN estimates that the number of chronically hungry people has recently increased by around 150 million people, and that the world's hungry now stand at one billion.
This shocking reversal of progress on food security is the result of many factors: climate shocks, crop failures, and, of course, the global financial crisis itself.
Scientists have sent the world's leaders a message: the poor and food-deficit regions can grow much more food if their smallholder farmers get the improved seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation they need to boost productivity.
(The author is Secretary-General of the United Nations. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2009.www.project-syndicate.org.)
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
