Global warming will push Asia into reverse, warns new report

A new environmental report has warned that global warming could undo decades of social and economic progress across Asia unless immediate action is taken by the international community.

The 'Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific' report, which features a foreword by Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Dr RK Pachauri, was launched earlier in the week following new evidence that the UK is failing to stick to targets for renewable energy to tackle climate change.

According to CAFOD (the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development), it is the most "extensive and concluding chapter" of four years of research by the Up in Smoke coalition - an alliance of the UK's major environment and development groups.

The coalition came together to assess the impacts of climate change on efforts to reduce global poverty by way of community-based organisations engaged in constructing responses to a changing environment.

'Up in Smoke?' is the latest and most comprehensive report to emerge from communities around the world that are already feeling the impact of climate change and highlights just some of the growing consequences of inaction on the issue.

Regional farmers in northern China have lost their crops as a result of severe drought, while severe flooding across south Asia during the summer prompted a massive effort among UK aid agencies to meet the needs of 28 million affected people.

It shows how, across Asia, home to over 60 per cent of the world's population, communities are already acting to reduce the worst impacts of climate change.

"Unless a decisive international agreement is reached, and soon, the lives of those living on the front line of climate change will go up in smoke," CAFOD said.

Chris Bain, CAFOD's Director, said: "The effects of climate change are already impacting on CAFOD's development and humanitarian work. Communities are increasingly having to deal with more intense droughts, floods and storms.

"It is largely communities that have contributed least to climate change that are bearing the brunt. It is therefore the responsibility of developed nations to act to significantly reduce their carbon emissions, while also assisting vulnerable communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

"The UK has a responsibility to act with a strong Climate Change Bill and needs to push for significant progress at the UN talks in Bali."

The report also presents new evidence indicating that the huge social and environmental costs of biofuels actually outweigh the benefits, substantiating concerns already voiced by aid and environment groups, and scientists.

In Indonesia the massive expansion of the palm oil industry - has some six million hectares of land under oil palm - has caused widespread deforestation, which in turn has helped Indonesia the third-largest global emitter of carbon dioxide.

With biofuels becoming increasingly lucrative, conflicts are emerging over land use for crops to grow food or crops to grow fuel.

The coalition is calling on the international community, particularly the rich countries that create the most emissions, to urgently to cut greenhouse gas emissions according to the targets set in the Kyoto Protocol.

"Starting now with deep annual cuts, commitments should be introduced progressively in a way that prevents a dangerous accumulation of greenhouse gases and puts industrialised countries on track to reach cuts of at least 80 per cent by 2050," stated CAFOD.

They also pressed the international community to halt forest clearance to contain biofuel expansion and draw up coordinated plans, from local to international levels, for relocating threatened communities with appropriate political, legal and financial resources.

The UK Government should set an example for countries like China and India by, they added, by committing to mandatory emissions reductions.

"As an absolute minimum, the UK Climate Change Bill, currently passing through parliament must lock-in mandatory year on year emissions reductions for the UK, setting carbon budgets for 3-5 year periods, to ensure that the UK does its part in keeping global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius," CAFOD said.

The UK Government should also keep up its commitments to renewable energy, the report stressed, accusing the Government of attempting to evade binding targets on renewable energy.

The report said that there was great potential and also a real market for sustainable energy across Asia.

"Countries like the UK need to set strong domestic examples by championing renewable energy - if countries in Asia are to be convinced not to go down the fossil fuel energy route of 'get rich quick, stay poor long'," said CAFOD.

The report also highlights the initiatives being taken by communities worldwide to deal with the worst consequences of climate change, including emissions reduction, the creation of alternative water and energy supply systems, preservation of strategic ecosystems and protected areas.

CAFOD concluded: "The challenge is clear and many of the solutions are known: the point is, to act."