The world needs climate justice now!

climate change, this time in Durban, South Africa, it is increasingly becoming clear that climate change is more than a scientific phenomenon.
Climate change will hit poor nations in Africa the hardest, spawning extreme weather events like droughts and floods as well as increasing vector-borne diseases.
Small island nations and cities could be swallowed in rising sea levels as glaciers melt.
In 2009, at the fruitless Copenhagen, Denmark, meeting President Mugabe illustrated this grave point.
President Mugabe had a well-received speech painting the bleak picture of the fate of developing countries, which should compel developed countries to own up and champion the fight to contain climate change.
“When these capitalist gods of carbon burp and belch their dangerous emissions, it’s we, the lesser mortals of the developing sphere who gasp and sink and eventually die,” he complained.
“Why is the guilty North not showing the same fundamentalist spirit it exhibits in our developing countries on human rights matters on this more menacing threat of climate change?”
He questioned, in apparent reference to the United States, the second major polluter.
“When a country spits on the Kyoto Protocol by seeking to shrink from its diktats, or by simply refusing to accede to it, is it not violating the global rule of law?”
He pointed out that funds must be availed by the developed world to help developing countries to adapt to climate change.
He said: “We who bear the burden of healing the gasping earth must draw the most from the global purse for remedial action.”
Interestingly, other leaders are calling for the world to get its moral compass right.
They are demanding justice.
South Africa’s Nobel Peace laureate Emeritus Desmond Tutu drew parallels between climate change and apartheid, on the eve of the opening of Durban conference.
Archbishop Tutu led a religious rally on the eve of the 12-day UN climate talks, formally known as the COP17 (17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change) and urged people to unite against climate change just as they fought apartheid.
He said: “Now we are facing another huge, huge enemy . . . an enemy called global warming, climate change.”
He said climate change would eventually destroy the earth and affect both the rich and poor alike.
In a similar move, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the world’s Anglicans, ahead of the opening of the conference called for “real moral leadership” in addressing climate change.
He said in a video message: “The moral crisis is as real as ever. The effects of environmental pressure and change are more and more felt day by day, especially by the most vulnerable people on the face of the planet.”
“And we need as never before real moral leadership from our governments, from the international community.”
Williams challenged rich nations to make good of their pledge to provide US$100 billion to help developing countries adapt to climate change and mitigate the damage.
Williams said a deal by current leaders would do “justice” to generations to come.
“I hope and pray that the deal will help move things on as we see the absolute necessity of doing justice to the next generation, as we do justice to the whole of our environment,” he said.
On the other hand, Pope Benedict XVI called for solidarity among international leaders to reach a responsible deal in Durban and account for the needs of the poorest communities and future generations.
Pope Benedict has been dubbed the “Green Pope” for his commitment to environmental concerns.
His church, through the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, had noted that climate change was a result of man’s activities which threaten “our beloved world and the entire creation that God has given us.”
The three moral figures’ stance is not new.
The paradox that rich nations have contributed most to climate change due to industrial gases but will suffer little effects while least polluting developing nations will be hardest hit, informed the groundbreaking Kyoto Protocol.
The 1997 agreement compels major polluters to cut their emissions and help poor countries adapt to climate change.
However, developed countries have not stepped up to the plate and refuse to commit to drastically cut emissions and are now vying for the death of Kyoto Protocol which expires next year.
The countries now argue that a new deal has to come in 2020. They are wary of agreeing to a binding emission cut regime as this will affect industrial activity and the economy and national interest.
Powerhouses Japan, Russia and Canada have already said they will oppose any new deal while the EU says it is unwilling to agree to a deal without the US, which in turn says it won’t agree to any deal without China.
China is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, but does not have the intention to halt them drastically as its phenomenal industrial growth is predicated on fossil fuels.
Some inertia also informed naysayers of science of climate change, which is clearly motivated by selfishness.
Some sitting members of the United States Congress doubt the existence of human influence on the climate and ridicule international efforts to deal with it.
In fact, climate change denial is reportedly so strong in the US.
One report noted this week that: “On the US political stage, scepticism and denial of climate change are as popular as ever . . . “
“The entire nation is divided on the issue,” the report said.
“According to the latest Gallup poll 53 percent of Americans see global warming as a very or somewhat serious threat, down 10 percent from two years earlier.”
Lawmakers cannot agree that climate change is a problem for which solutions must be sought and gridlock ensues.
Republicans have reportedly voted 21 times to block actions to address climate change.
Some sceptics accuse climate change campaign as “propaganda”.
Unfortunately, such views might influence the outcome of Durban, which some say is foregone a conclusion.
It has happened in Denmark, it happened at Cancun, Mexico, last year.