from the ground Up

by Jessica Cheam, The Straits Times, April 12 2008

BY NEXT year, the world must reach an agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions or businesses could face a crisis of confidence, warned a leading British economist on climate change. Failure to do so will also ruin all the efforts made to mitigate climate change, said Lord Nicholas Stern at the London School of Economics (LSE) forum. He said that for global talks to succeed, developing countries must take the lead in forming a post-Kyoto agreement. The Kyoto Protocol, a treaty among industrialised countries with targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions – largely blamed for global warming – expires in 2012. So, the post-Kyoto deal must be signed when countries meet in Copenhagen by the end of next year, to give time for ratification, noted Lord Stern, best known for writing the Stern Report, a groundbreaking 2006 study on the financial cost of climate change. Noting that rich countries come up with proposals that are rejected, Lord Stern, who is also director of LSE’s Asia Research Centre, said: “If the developing world takes the lead in designing the way… the whole process will move much more quickly. “It’s the developing countries which have the majority of people, they’re the ones that will be hit the fastest and hardest by climate change. The future lies in their hands.” Meanwhile, a “six-point programme” he outlined lays out some key considerations for a post-Kyoto deal which must be effective, efficient and equitable. Among them: targets for rich countries to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, and the rest of the world by 50 per cent. Later, Lord Stern told The Straits Times Singapore, although a small nation, can play a meaningful role. It could be “a bridge between poor and rich countries” given its links to wealthy Western countries and its relationship with emerging nations in Asia. Technology, in particular, is the country’s advantage, and for solar energy, for example, “Singapore could take a lead in that”. JESSICA CHEAM