Yak, Snap, Snarl - World "Leaders" Go Round And Round On Climate At Davos

[hatrack]

EDIT

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said everyone could agree on targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 but no one could agree on 2020. "Everyone can agree in the far distant future when everyone has gone," he told the Davos forum. Mexican President Felipe Calderon admitted there were "low expectations" for the next big US climate change conference he is due to host in Cancun late this year.

So climate change became a second or third order issue at the Davos forum, which ended on Sunday, drowned out by uncertainty over the vigour of the North Atlantic economic pickup and the rancour of the anti-banking backlash. Sitting on huge deposits of carbon-intensive oil sands, Canada's Harper argued that trying to move ahead of the capacity to shift to low-emissions technology would threaten economic growth and jobs. "It is very difficult to lower emissions growth," he said. "There is a lot of demand for targets or other actions, whether it's on developed countries or developing countries, that will have significant impacts on their economies. Everyone talks as though to recognise the economic problem is some kind of failing."

Harper argued that the task of a longer-term technological fix would not be helped by trying to pretend there was no shorter-term economic hit. "People set targets and don't meet them," he said.

Mexico's Calderon snapped back: "There are economic costs tackling climate change. "Nevertheless, we need to recognise that the consequences of global warming in the future, the opportunity cost of that, could be higher in economic terms. "The costs of doing nothing will be much higher than taking action today."

EDIT

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/climate-of-davos-despair/story-e6frg6z6-1225826879579