Time to pay our ecological debt to the poor

Forgive me if I'm not leaping for joy at the news that the US government has finally agreed to take part in talks about cutting greenhouse gas emissions after the current Kyoto Framework expires in 2012, writes Progressio's advocacy manager Joanne Green.

One can understand the need for many at the UN Climate Change conference in Bali last December who fought hard for this small concession from the US to claim it as some sort of victory. However, the reality is that the most powerful country in the world has budged an inch, and lost nothing, except face; while most others, particularly the world's poorest countries, have given a mile and will probably suffer the consequences in terms of increased floods and droughts in years to come.  

There are few recent world news items that so starkly illustrate power misused and abused. Yet the events of December are just ripples on the surface of a powerful undercurrent of vested interests that are very hard to swim against. The international economic and governance system is weighted in favour of those who are already rich and powerful. Our partners in developing countries tell us about how this inequitable system effects their poor and marginalised communities: whether it be through the increased corporate control over seed production and patenting of life; or through a lack of access to the medical treatment to would prolong and improve the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS.

Edmira Vangari for example, who is a small-scale farmer from Octavio Cordero in Ecuador, is already experiencing the impact of climate change. She says: 'We are noticing big impacts from climate change. We have one season where it is hugely hot and then one where it is hugely cold and rainy. Now it is really rainy but it is supposed to be summer. It has really changed; it should not be like this. The sun now really burns.'  Climate change will make it even harder for poor farmers such as Edmira to put food on their plates: the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict that yields from rain-fed agriculture could be halved.

For our international development agency Progressio, the only sensible approach to development and justice is to look at what has caused the poverty and try to change it. This radical perspective often means looking at the role we in the North have played in creating the problem: which was a central message of the livesimply project that we and other Catholic organisations are promoting.

We have heard much in recent times about the financial debt poor countries owe us. But we in the North owe a far bigger ecological debt to them. Rich country economies and lifestyles are increasing greenhouse gas emissions, thereby increasing environmental degradation and marginalisation of poor farmers in developing countries. Scientists tell us that we may be shortly approaching a tipping point where climate change will be irreversible regardless of any reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. And as Sir Nicholas Stern said in his recent report for the British government, the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change, that those least responsible for climate change will be hardest hit.  

Making sure that poor countries are able to withstand the effects of climate change has now become just as urgent as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And as we created the problem, it is our responsibility. Costs of adaptation are estimated at about $US 50 billion per year. We are pleased that the Bali meeting did manage to finalise arrangements for a new 'Adaptation Fund' but disappointingly developed country governments did not pledge significant sums of new money. 

Now that the fund is established, rich governments need to commit money fast and not at the expense of their already squeezed aid budgets. Funds for adaptation must be in addition to aid budgets. This is a matter of justice, not charity.

So, may your hopes and prayers this new year time echo the closing words of Pope Paul IV in Populorum Progressio, 'Along this road we move as one. For all of us, the hour has come to act. On all of us depend so many children's lives, the happiness of many homes and the future of humankind. And each of us, and every people of the earth, must think responsibly, and act.'

Joanne Green is Progressio's advocacy manager.