Developed, Developing Nations Argue Over Sharing Costs of Cutting Carbon Emissions

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There is an urgent need to bring down the rising carbon emissions and switch over from the dirty fossil fuels to clean alternative energy sources. Leaders of the developed and developing nations completely agree over this plan of action but, sadly, the agreement between the two ends there. Both parties agree that they have got to act quickly but none is willing to take the initiative on the economic front of the fight against climate change.

Under the Kyoto Protocol the onus of controlling and bringing down the carbon emissions was on the developed nations with the help of tools like the national carbon registry and the emission permits whereas the developing nations were not obligated to any emission cuts. Now that the talks for a new climate treaty have started to gain momentum the developed nations want the developing countries to reduce their carbon emissions under that treaty. And although the developing countries recognize their responsibility in the fight against climate change they are unwilling to bear the full economic burden of the same.

At the climate talks held at Poznan, Poland, the representatives from both developed and developing nations argued over how the costs of cutting carbon credits be divided. Developing nations want extra financial help in the form of increased taxes on the profits that developed nations make from the emissions trading scheme. Whereas the developed nations claim that current tax system is sufficient to provide adequate funds for the Adaptation Fund which would help developing nations replace their polluting energy systems with new clean energy systems.

India and China are leading the charge as they put forward the case on behalf of the developing countries. But it would be wrong to club these two countries with the rest of the developing world. Here’s why. Both India and China are some of the biggest polluters in the world; there economies are not in recession as the western economies are; China has the world’s largest foreign reserves amounting to nearly a trillion dollars.

Now it is essential that the developed nations help the developing nations to cut carbon emissions. The Montreal Protocol - under which the developed economies provided funds and technologies to developing economies to reduce their ozone depleting emissions - worked efficiently. A similar model of working is required to make the next climate treaty a success. But emerging economies like India, China and Brazil must be differentiated from rest of the developing world.

These countries should have greater responsibilities then the rest of the developing countries. They should too contribute to the Adaptation Fund which could be used by the other developing economies. China with its vast foreign reserves and Brazil with its substantial income from exporting biofuels can definitely pitch in something. The next treaty should divide the nations into three tiers - the developed nations (US, Canada, Australia and Europe), the big developing nations (comprising of some of the biggest economies of the G20) and the rest of the developing nations.

Expecting the western countries to increase financial help at this moment would be asking for too much as they toil with the economic recession. These economies are finding it difficult to get investors for renewable energy projects themselves so it would be fair if some of the economic burden of cutting carbon emissions is borne by some relatively healthy economies; and since these countries are also some of the biggest polluters it becomes their moral responsibility too.

Image source: Great Lakes Exposure at Flickr under Creative Commons License.