Need oneness of purpose in handling climate change: Uganda

New Delhi: 'Looking Ahead: Preserving Global Commons', the first session on the final day of TERI's 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, was rightly christened by moderator H.E Dasho Paljor J. Dorji, Advisor, National Environment Commission, Govt. of Bhutan as the "happiness session."

The panellists at the session brought forward a host of best
practices that their countries are following while urging a collective global action towards saving the global commons.

"Who amongst our global leaders speaks for the global commons? The national leaders care about global commons but have to survive day to day political compulsions. We should therefore develop an instrument such as the 'Global Harmonised Carbon Price'. The instrument will drive the momentum to decarbonise the global economy. It will help make clean energy more competitive, reduce local and
trans-boundary pollution, and also provide revenues from developed countries to help the developing nations in mitigation, adaptation and carbon sink policies," said Stephane Dion, MP, House of Commons, Canada.

Heidi Hautala, Minister for International Development, Finland,
expressed that DSDS provides an important platform to prepare for Rio+20. "My concern is that the North-South divide still exists. We must revisit our approach to development. Most new resources for development financing will come from our commitments to the climate cause," said Hautala.

While mentioning the latest ruling of the European Court of Justice that the EU can tax the emissions of airlines flying to and from the 27-member countries and the controversy surrounding the same, she urged "developing relevant
global institutions to put such measures in place."

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that aviation accounts for 3% of the total carbon dioxide emissions. "Finland would like to concentrate on two issues in the run up to Rio+20. One, developing new partnerships between government, companies and civil society and two, to concentrate on developing new welfare indicators – an inspiration from Bhutan’s Gross Happiness Index," she added.

What drew most questions from the audience was Germany's stand on nuclear energy. "The future depends on how we deal with the three dominant waves… of globalisation, power shifts in the world and climate change and its consequences. Germany has decided to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2020," said Heidemarie Wieczoreik-Zeul, Member of the German Parliament and former Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany.

"We understand that nuclear energy is not sustainable and therefore eight nuclear power plants have been stopped and by 2022 we will cut our dependence on nuclear energy further. The renewable energies sector has created three lakh new jobs in Germany. Renewable are also the peaceful option – there cannot be wars over the sun and wind," he added.

'Resilience' entered the spotlight, thanks to Naoko Ishii, Deputy Vice Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan. She shared the learning her nation derived from the 2011 tsunami. "We learnt the importance of resilience; protecting global commons. And to develop resilience, the decision-making ought to happen close to the community. The mountain of debris lying in tsunami
affected areas can be easily tackled if the decisions are made close to the grassroots because passing a budget for it at the Centre would take much longer. Similarly, monitoring by the community is more effective than the central government applying checks," said Ishii.

Another innovative case study came from Portugal. Dr Assuncao Cristas, Minister for Agriculture, Maritime Affairs, Environment and Regional Planning, described how her Ministry, within three days of assuming office, decided to reduce the air conditioning to save energy. "According to our regulations, air conditioning should not lower the temperature below 26 degrees in public buildings, but no one really abides by that rule. There was a lot of debate around our initiative because the men, in response to the changed temperature in
the buildings, stopped wearing ties to office… to feel more
comfortable. But it led to huge energy savings."

Studies also show that reducing air conditioning by one degree Celsius would save 7% in energy costs. The Portugese government has increased its target for carbon efficiency from 20 per cent to 25 per cent.

An emotionally moved Maria Mutagamba, Minister of Water and
Environment, Uganda, requested global action to help save the commons in Africa. She spoke at length about the need to tackle water-borne diseases and malaria. Also, to make available affordable technology to treat water.

She concluded: "We expect from the globe a oneness of purpose."