Climate Change and Politcs: Global Warming Continues Due to Too Much Hot Air?

All the way back in January 2004 Sir David A. King, the Government's then chief scientific adviser, described global warming, and the climate change that it drives, as a greater threat to the world than international terrorism. King, who caused quite a stir with his comments, said that industrialized countries had a commitment to place a serious effort into developing sustainable energy production and carbon capture technologies.

Now, over four years on, the momentum that King called for has not materialized anywhere but in the showboating embroidery from our politicians and in the cynical green-washing from our captains of industry. The Kyoto agreement - which was widely seen as a last ditch attempt to press against the greed and stupidity that drive climate change just as much as the skybound pollutants themselves - failed. Bush decided that further research into climate change was needed before carbon taxes could be introduced. Thus, 4% of the world's population - America - continued to account for over one fifth of the world's carbon emissions.

A successor to Kyoto is due to be thrashed out in 2009 amidst the lushly upholstered suites and complimentary coffee lined tables of Copenhagen's most suitable venue: the greenhouse-like Copenhagen Congress Centre. The centre will, in a completely non-symbolic gesture, be powered by its very own wind turbine. So this time, you know they mean business.
The reassurance of a windmill and some serious political hyperbole and media speculation have not been enough to persuade the UN Secretary, General Ban Ki-moon, to let the international community rest upon their...well, success would be too strong a word, but the little bit that they have managed to achieve, until the Copenhagen climate deal.

General Ban Ki-moon, talking to the diplomats gathered to celebrate the anniversary of the UN climate panel, said that the politicians should aim to make some serious headway before then this December in Poznan, Poland.

The Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012, has been largely seen as a complete failure in terms of reducing carbon emissions. 37 countries, all developed, signed the protocol, but there are some rather serious holes in the thing in terms of it getting everyone singing from the same sheet. For one, America and China failed to impose any limits under the agreement. For two, the carbon balance sheets ignore certain, little things. Like shipping and air travel. Whoops.

The fear caused by the knowledge that climate change is already affecting us has resulting in an increased impetus in the battle between action and continued inaction. The one hundred months campaign (http://www.onehundredmonths.org) for example, reckons that "We have 100 months to save the planet", because after that we "could be beyond the climate's 'tipping point, the point of no return.'

Talking to Reuters, Ban Ki-moon suggested that the Poland meeting should serve as a "very successful bridge" for the later meetings in Copenhagen. It is encouraging that climate change has stopped being seen as a long term issue, and hopefully the immediacy of its effects will bring about a mature, effectual political response to the problem.