Main focus of Monday, November 13, 2006

The struggle against global warming

As an international conference on climate change is taking place in Nairobi, numerous voices are being raised to request much stronger commitment in the struggle against global warming. They are calling for the objectives fixed by the Kyoto protocol concerning the reduction of greenhouse gases to be greatly surpassed. But the politicians responsible are having a hard time getting a grip on the problem.

El Diario Vasco - Spain

"According to NASA, last year was the hottest since the end of the 19th century. If global warming was considered up until recently as a debatable question on a scientific level, today only people blinded by ideology dare to deny that the planet is heating up and that Man's hand has, in a more or less big measure, been responsible for this phenomenon", explains the daily. "The Kyoto protocol has indeed constituted humanity's first attempt to treat the problem in a combined effort. But Kyoto is no longer sufficient and this even more so as numerous signatories, notably Spain, are proving incapable of respecting their commitments. ... The success of the conference in Nairobi will be measured according to the will shown by governments to extend the continuity of this protocol beyond 2012 and to reinforce their commitment". (13/11/2006)

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Die Presse - Austria

In a guest commentary, Werner Wutscher, director of the Austrian delegation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, talks about Europe's future role in climate policy. "European industry has two options: it can either move elsewhere or invest in cutting-edge technology. This is a fundamental problem with globalisation. One solution to this problem could be to take a sector-oriented approach which entails emission reduction regulations for entire sectors like the steel and cement industries on an international level. This approach would integrate the new competitors in these sectors. The key to solving the problem is to make carbon dioxide emissions expensive using instruments like emissions trading, taxation and other regulations. Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme is the largest and most effective in the world, but there's still room for improvement. Europe's credibility, not only in matters of environmental policy but also in industrial and technological policy, depends on the efficacy of this scheme." (13/11/2006)

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La Repubblica - Italy

"The greens [ecological movements] are just a special-interest group or a gathering of special-interest groups who have rarely surpassed 5 % in elections because their electoral campaigns only concentrate on a single series of priority questions", considers the British sociologist Anthony Giddens who is asking political parties to include the problem of climate change in their programmes. "The time has come to take the question of climate change out of the hands of the greens. It is not the greens, but the scientists who first sounded the alarm on the dangers of climate change ... . The green parties developed themselves around the idea of environmental conservation taking precedent over that of technological progress. However, it is only through science and technology that it will be possible to find a response to climate change". (13/11/2006)

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