Main focus of Monday, November 28, 2011

World climate protection hangs in the balance

Global CO2 emissions rose to a record high in 2010. (©AP)

Representatives from more than 190 states convened in the South African city of Durban today for the 17th UN Climate Summit. Until December 9 they will seek to hammer out a climate protection agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in one year. But the chances of success are slim even though climate change can plunge the entire world into chaos, the press writes.

Les Echos - France

The Durban Climate Change Conference is doomed to failure due to political short-sightedness and economic alarmism, complains the business paper Les Echos: "If the failure of the last summit in Copenhagen in 2009 weighs heavily on people's minds, there is something even more profound and more worrying amidst this pessimism: the dictatorship of the present moment that leads our politicians to mobilise their energy for short-term priorities while forgetting the equally fundamental challenges of the long term. ... What is the solution? First of all, to put an end to alarmist or regressive discourses such as that calling for economic degrowth, so as to open the way for acceptable perspectives. Then to ask whether a body other than the UN - the G20? - wouldn't be better suited to easing the inflexibility of states that can't see farther than their own interests." (28/11/2011)

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WOZ - Die Wochenzeitung - Switzerland

The reduction targets for CO2 emissions won't even come close to being met, but the subject has simply become too "uncool", writes the left-leaning weekly WOZ: "It's uncool to spread a doomsday mood - to dampen the high spirits bolstered by the mild November weather by pointing to rainfall levels that are at a record low. That would only risk making people apathetic, which is no good for anyone. So don't panic. ... Don't rush into things, otherwise people won't cooperate. Meanwhile greenhouse gas emissions are soaring to levels that exceed the worst expectations. Temperatures are expected to rise by six degrees by the end of this century. Southern Europe could become as inhospitable as the Sahara. In the long term the Greenland ice sheet will melt and the sea level will rise by several metres. Without glaciers in the Alps, the Andes and the Himalayas the water supplies of more than a billion people will be at risk. We face wars over resources, famines and the collapse of state structures." (24/11/2011)

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La Stampa - Italy

The chances of success at the climate summit are slim and the last hope is China, writes the liberal daily La Stampa: "Almost unanimously, scientists view the global warming process as a real and dangerous phenomenon. Nevertheless it seems unlikely, if not impossible, that the summit will reach an agreement on combating climate change. The differences between the old and the new economic powers are too great, their interests too strong and the political leaders too weak due to the international financial and economic crisis. ... All eyes are on China, the country with the highest greenhouse gas emissions in the world. China refuses to accept binding rules for reducing its emissions, nevertheless it seems to have the intention of announcing a unilateral mega-plan for drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions that will apply only to China. That could be a good example for everyone." (28/11/2011)

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