 |
Read the Human Development Report 2007/2008 "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world" |
UNDP Report ranks leading carbon polluters and offers carbon budgeting agenda to forestall dangerous climate change
Time is now for Thailand to start a “low-carbon” diet
Bangkok 29 November – Thailand ranks among the top 30 carbon dioxide polluters in the world and the seventh highest overall in Asia, while its per capita emissions are higher than China, India and Indonesia, according to the United Nations Human Development Report on climate change launched today.
While governments prepare to gather in Bali, Indonesia to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol, now is the time for countries in the region to “climate-proof” growth to prevent catastrophic reversals in health, education and poverty reduction for the world’s poor, says the Report: “Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world”.
“Thailand now has the opportunity to put itself on a ‘low-carbon diet’ that can continue to feed its economic growth, but also help win the global battle against climate change that threatens everyone, particularly the poorest,” says Gwi-Yeop Son, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Thailand.
Focusing on the 2.6 billion people surviving on less than $2 a day, the Report warns that forces unleashed by global warming could stall and then reverse progress built up over generations. Among the threats to human development from climate change:
• The breakdown of agricultural systems as a result of increased exposure to drought, rising temperatures and more erratic rainfall, increasing the number of people facing malnutrition by as much as 600 million.
• An additional 1.8 billion people facing water stress, with large areas of South Asia and northern China facing grave ecological crisis as a result of glacial retreat and changed rainfall patterns.
• Displacement through flooding and tropical storm activity of up to 332 million people in coastal and low-lying areas. Over 70 million Bangladeshis and 22 million Vietnamese could be affected by global warming-related flooding. Small island states in the Pacific could suffer catastrophic damage.
• Emerging health risks, with an additional population of up to 400 million people facing the risk of malaria.
Across the world, 2.5 billion poor still rely on burning trees and vegetation for fuel. While they are left in the dark, wealthier countries are running up the energy bills. An average air-conditioning unit in Florida emits more CO2 in a year than a person in Afghanistan or Cambodia during their lifetime.
Disaster preparedness also differs markedly between the developed and developing worlds. In the low-lying Netherlands, homeowners are preparing for flooding with the assistance of the Government by building homes with foundations like the hull of a ship that can float on water, yet in the densely populated villages of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, local people are learning how to swim and lifejackets are being distributed.
While the rich are learning how to float on water, the poor are learning how to float in it, “creating a world of ‘adaptation apartheid’,” writes Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, in the Report.
Thailand, meanwhile, has seen its carbon emissions rise very quickly over the past fifteen years, at an average rate of 12.8 percent a year. Thailand now ranks 22nd among the top 30 carbon dioxide emitters in the world. Within Asia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Iran and Indonesia rank higher than Thailand in overall emissions. However, Thailand’s per capita emissions of 4.2 tonnes of CO2 per year is higher than China at 3.8 tonnes per capita, Indonesia at 1.7 tonnes, and India at 1.2 tonnes.
“Thailand has the chance to be a leader in the region in increasing energy efficiency by putting in place smart tax incentives and subsidies while adopting the latest technology to reduce carbon emissions,” said Gwi-Yeop Son. “At the same time there is an urgent need to protect those communities who have the most to lose as they adapt to the impact of climate change on their homes and livelihoods.”
High income developing countries meanwhile lead the league of “CO2 transgressors.” With just 15 per cent of the world’s population, they account for almost half of all emissions. If the entire world emitted like high-income countries, an average of 13.2 tonnes of CO2 per person, we would be emitting six times our sustainable carbon budget.
By contrast, if all countries in the world were to emit CO2 at the levels similar to Thailand’s we would exceed our sustainable carbon budget by approximately 89 per cent. According to the report, a sustainable carbon budge is 14.5 gigatonnes of CO2 per a year for the remainder of the 21st Century. Current global emissions are running at twice that level.
Globally, the Report recommends that developed countries aim to cut carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 20 to 30 percent by 2020, and 80 percent by 2050. It recommends that developing countries aim to reduce emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. The Report argues for carbon to be priced through cap-and-trade schemes and taxation.
The Report also calls for financing and technology transfer to help developing countries as they transition to a low-carbon economy. At the same time, substantial aid will be needed to help the poor adapt to climate change and protect progress already made towards the Millennium Development Goals.
_______________________________
For more information, please contact:
Cherie Hart cherie.hart@undp.org 02 288 2133; 081 918 1564
Nick Keyes nicholas.keyes@undp.org 02 288 1814; 081 830 1344
