Lets fight Global Warming

As the world awaits a significant breakthrough in talks at the Copenhagen summit,there are many who feel after the serious deadlock between the developing and developed nations on several key issues, the Copenhagen summit would not turn out to be as fruitful as one would have expected. Some critics go as far as to say all the fuss about Copenhagen and fighting climate change has amounted to very little as a unanimous resolution on some key facets of climate change seems to be next to impossible. The recent issue of contention which has led to the developed and developing countries locking horns is that of the Kyoto Protocol. The developed bloc wants the Kyoto Protocol to be scrapped which makes it mandatory for developed nations to confine their emissions to set targets and to pay a penalty to the developing world in case they fail to achieve the set target. While the developing bloc is strongly opposed to scrapping the Kyoto Protocol, the developed nations are now not willing to follow the protocol.

The United States believes it would be detrimental for their interests to pay a penalty in monetary terms to a country like China for not being able to achieve set target of emission cuts as China is now the biggest emitter of carbon and other gases which stimulate global warming. On the other hand, major developing countries like India and China feel the onus should be on the developed countries as they are the main emitters. At the same time, they expect developed nations to provide assistance financially and technologically to developing nations in coming up with clean technology to reduce harmful substances from being released in the atmosphere.

No matter what the issues, it really seems that countries are more concerned about their GDP and national growth and development than this grave danger staring at us on the face. Each nation wants a deal that is favourable to it without looking at the broader picture. The biggest losers in all of this confusion are the small and underdeveloped nations like Maldives, Ethiopia and other such nations. Even a major player like India will face devastating effects of climate change and it is estimated that the number of people that will have to be migrated would be more than that which migrated during partition.

In this acute situation, it's extremely important to come up with a flexible, concrete and a fair solution to tackle this monster of climate change and every nation should be willing to sacrifice other petty interests and bring the larger interest that concerns the world to the fore. There's still some time for the world to react(a couple of days till the summit ends)... here's hoping this much hyped and talked about Copenhagen summit doesn't end up being a 'talk-shap' or an 'expensive picnic'.