Wednesday May 21, 2008 MYT 8:22:59 PM
Global warming: Forge new path, urges Nobel winner
By HILARY CHIEW
PETALING JAYA: Developing countries should avoid the present carbon economic system that is responsible for global warming, said Nobel Peace Prize co-winner and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman Dr Rajendra K. Pachauri.
“It’s ruinous for developing countries to pursue growth in the same path. However, committing to alternative development paths requires major changes in a wide range of areas such as economic structure, transport infrastructure, urban design and consumption patterns and lifestyle,” said Dr Rajendra at the 10th anniversary lecture series at the Monash University Sunway campus here recently.
He said human addiction to petroleum products was the root of the climate problem. For example, 90% of transport fuel came from fossil fuel and that was where intervention was sorely needed.
Large carbon emitters like China and India are better off weaning their economies away from heavy dependency on carbon.
Many are concerned that economic boom in these two populous countries would pump more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere and negate the benefits of any emission reductions mandated by the Kyoto Protocol on developed countries.
“Climate change is unequivocal. The number of sceptics is dwindling,” said Dr Pachauri, referring to the attacks on IPCC’s findings that attributed a warming world to human-induced activities.
He said the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases needed to stabilise and gradually reduce by 2015 to avert serious effects from melting icy bodies leading to a massive sea-level rise that will have an adverse impact on mega-deltas in Asia.
Citing the devastation of Irrawaddy Delta of Myanmar following the onslaught of Cyclone Nargis, Dr Pachauri said sea-level rise had no doubt caused huge volumes of sea water to inundate the shallow continental shelf and brought more water inland.
On biofuel, he said the rush for the so-called green alternative was void of consideration of its ecological and social impacts. Under the current food crisis situation, he said producer countries would be under pressure to reconsider this policy.
Diversion of food crops like corn and oil palm to biofuel production has been blamed for the present food shortage, besides emitting more carbon dioxide in the process.
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