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    UN Security Council Urged to Punish CO2 Offenders
    By Haider Rizvi
    Inter Press News

    Tuesday 12 February 2008

    United Nations - The world's small island nations are calling for the U.N. Security Council to help protect their lands and resources by using its authority to demand reductions of carbon dioxide emissions, and to penalise those nations that fail to comply.

    "It is the obligation of the Security Council to prevent an aggravation of the situation," Palau's ambassador Stuart Beck told delegates attending a two-day General Assembly meeting on climate change that started here Monday.

    Describing the devastating impact of changing climates on small islands of the Pacific region, Beck said many people living along the coastlines are moving out of their ancestral lands because they have lost their sources of livelihood due to the rising water levels.

    "While we do not have all the answers," said Beck, "we are not unmindful of the scientific certainty that excessive greenhouse gas emissions are the cause of this threat to international security and the existence of our countries."

    Speaking on behalf of small island nations, he urged the 15-member Council to consider imposing mandatory emission caps on all states and use its power to impose sanctions in order to encourage compliance.

    "Larger countries can build dikes, and move to higher ground," he said. "This is not feasible for the small island states who must simply stand by and watch their cultures vanish."

    Beck was not alone in urging the Council to consider the issue of climate change as a threat to international security. Speaking on behalf of the Pacific Island Forum at last year's Council debate, ambassador Robert Aisi of Papua New Guinea expressed similar views.

    In a speech, Aisi described climate change as "no less a threat" to small island states than "the dangers of guns and bombs to larger countries". He said the Pacific island countries were likely to face massive dislocations, similar to flows sparked by conflict.

    The two-day thematic debate was organised by the General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim, who thinks it is now crucial for the world body to sustain the momentum generated by last December's historic Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

    In Bali, 187 countries agreed to launch a two-year process of formal negotiations on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

    Under the so-called Bali Roadmap, key issues during the upcoming negotiations will be adaptation, mitigation, the deployment of climate-friendly technology and financing.

    "Many countries cannot wait until the effects of mitigation targets have an impact," Kerim said. "We need both targets and immediate practical actions that can help the most vulnerable adapt to climate change."

    He called on the over 100 delegates from member states and organisations in attendance to consider what the U.N.'s goals should be following the Kyoto Protocol's expiration in 2012, as well as how to link the fight against climate change with efforts to bolster development.

    In addition to official delegates, the meeting was also attended by prominent figures from the private sector investing in clean technologies and celebrities from the entertainment industry.

    Speaking at a news conference Monday, Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, proposed the creation of an "international war room", a politically-independent gathering of scientists, economists and others to catalyse the public sector, businesses, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and governments to act on a large scale.

    "The war room will be a unique combination of entrepreneurial muscle, the best possible data and the power to mobilise resources and influence policy," he said.

    Branson has offered a 25-million-dollar prize to encourage scientists and inventors to explore technical solutions to climate change.

    In a separate press conference, the U.N.'s top climate change official, Yvo de Boer, however, warned that an increased emphasis on technology "is not going to come unless rich countries take on ambitious reduction targets."

    Independent environmental experts welcomed Branson's ideas, but some were sceptical about their viability.

    "Unfortunately, on the climate change priority list, the last things are: 'war rooms', 'battle plans', and half-billion-dollar prizes," said Dr. Michael Dorsey, who teaches environmental studies at Dartmouth College.

    "We must, however, say 'yes!' to more room for renewables in the market place; green plans at municipal to national levels; and ending the billion-dollar prizes governments give to the fossil fuel sector each year," he told IPS.

    Dorsey is also critical of the role of the World Bank in combating climate change.

    In his view, the Bank needs to take "its own medicine by following its Extractive Industries Review and reverse its 15:1 support of fossil fuels over renewable by five factors each year until 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires."

    "The world's 20 wealthiest nations don't need to put money into Branson's prize fund," said Dorsey. "If they want to match Branson's gift, they should direct their contributions toward fully funding the Adaptation and Mitigation Fund, before 2012."

    Branson's energy and carbon footprint, according to Dorsey, "would be better spent doing shuttle diplomacy amongst peer CEOs - especially in the petroleum sector, and energy production area.

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