New thinking on climate change urged

A new development paradigm that is more concern on ecological quality of economic growth should be urgently explored by Asian leaders to minimise the damages from climate change, said Han Seungsoo, United Nations' Special Envoy for Climate Change.

In his keynote speech delivering at the international conference on Asia's Emerging Response to Climate change, hosted by The Nation and Krungthep Turakij on Friday, Han said Asian countries have to shift from the old paradigm of "quantitative growth" to the new paradigm of "qualitative growth".

The shift of paradigm, he said, is a fundamental of the "two birds with one stone" strategy that is to grow fast and at the same time to reduce the green house gases emission.

"Many politicians and government officials, economists, and business leaders have long been obsessed with the growth of GDP, the overriding paradigm of the day....The climate change regime after the Kyoto Protocol, the so-called Post-Kyoto climate regime requires the beyond GDP paradigm," he said.

Han, an economist, referred to the only international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emission which would be expired in 2012. 

In order to explore a new paradigm Han said leaders of Asia have to address the market failure aspect of current GDP paradigm as well as to design a new market mechanism that is more flexible in controlling the emissions than a mandatory tapping and direct control on the quantity of the greenhouse gases.

"Then, our challenge would be how to design a market mechanism to present climate change action as a business and investment opportunity which will ultimately stimulate further economic growth, employment and technological innovation," said Han, also former Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea.

Han called for the reform of the structure of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a mechanism initiated by the Kyoto Protocol to allow developing countries to volunteer cutting their emission by selling carbon credits to industrialised countries through clean development project that can reduce the emission. In his point of view, the current structure of CDM has limited scope and complex procedures that many developing countries have not benefited it. That he wished it to be improved as a full-fledged market that would enhance the opportunity for a positive-sum game between climate action and greener economic growth.   

"Once the CDM is reformed to be full-fledged market mechanism for emission reduction projects on a broader range of areas, the CDM can function as an efficient channel of transferring financial resources as well as technology to developing countries," said Han, whose background is economist.

As the United Nations' meeting on climate change is about to be taken place in two weeks in Bali, Indonesia, Han wished the meeting, which would be participated by leaders of nations that are members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC), to be more focus on market approach that can generate net global reductions from developing countries without imposing any target to reduce emission. He reasoned that for many developing countries target approach is not only politically unacceptable but also technological impractical due to the difficulty of making precise projection.

However, he admitted that he did not expect any serious negotiating to be occurred at the Bali meeting as so far he not yet see a light at the tunnel of "deadlock" between the developed and developing countries.

"It is most likely that we end up with hot air or growth capping unless we are capable of making precise long-term projections for major developing countries. Which I believe is highly unlikely," he said .

by Pennapa Hongthong

The Nation