Anguilla News covers Anguilla and the wider
Caribbean.
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Environment
and Sustainable Development
Date Posted: April 22, 2008.
By: Watson R. Denis, PhD
The issue of the environment, climate change and global
warming, has become today a major topic of discussion in
international relations. It stands to reason that the
Association of Caribbean States (ACS) is greatly interested
in the matter, given that the protection and preservation of
the environmental integrity of the Caribbean Sea are among
its founding objectives, recognising it as the common
patrimony of the peoples of the region. In this regard, last
November in Haiti, the Association organised a Conference on
Disaster Reduction with other sub-regional and regional
institutions and UN bodies, following which the Plan of
Action of Saint-Marc was adopted, which is viewed as a
programmatic working framework for the ACS, in the area of
disaster reduction for a five-year period.
The first point of this Plan of Action accurately recalled
the vulnerability of the countries of the region and the
difficulty of tackling disasters, and the negative impact of
the latter on the incessant efforts which are made to ensure
sustainable development, and to realise the objectives of
development relating to poverty reduction and the protection
of the environment.
Likewise, the tenth point reaffirms “the need for free and
timely access by developing and least developed countries,
as part of the technical cooperation, to the technology
required to reduce disaster risks and mitigate their effects
in the event they occur”.
These points are examples which show the fundamental problem
that exists between the environment and development,
especially sustainable development. Like other countries of
the world, the current environment of the Caribbean region
demonstrates that the satisfaction of the needs of man has
influenced the climatic phenomena.
In fact, it has been analysed, documented and supported by
many that the Caribbean environment has experienced
degradation: ecological, soil and marine degradation. The
habitat of a number of natural forests became, for example,
either surfaces of agricultural exploitation on a large
scale or residential agglomerates. This degradation,
together with other external factors, is a periodic source
of the most dangerous, costly and catastrophic atmospheric
manifestations. More hurricanes, storms, floods, earthquakes
take place in the region.
During these past years, these manifestations have become
increasingly intense. Generally, they emanate from the warm
waters of the Western part of the Atlantic or the Caribbean
Sea, in places where the temperature of the sea exceeds the
critical limit of 20º Celsius. In other words, the frequency
and intensity of these manifestations are caused by Global
Warming.
Global warming is a universal phenomenon. The present
concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by far
exceeds the natural variations which were produced during
the last 650,000 years. To remedy the situation this time,
man must intervene to protect the environment, in a broader
sense. Climate change is not a simple issue of the
environment or ecology. It is a global phenomenon which
involves politics, education, health, the economy,
agriculture, wealth and wealth production, as well as the
price of goods and food; in short, a societal problem which
affects man in his environment and his most profound
aspirations.
The issue of negotiations on Global Warming in 2008-2009,
consists of the adoption of a control regime which limits
the warming problem to at least below 20º Celsius, the
pre-industrial temperatures. That is to say, the world’s
emissions of greenhouse gases should be reduced between now
and 2050, by at least 50% below their levels in 1990.
These general objectives raise many questions relating to
the needs of man and the protection of the environment. For
example: how to combine economic development and control of
greenhouse gases? Or, in addition, how economic development
and poverty reduction can be achieved? Are the poor or
impoverished countries condemned to continuously remain in
their state of poverty? What will it be for the environment
if the solution to poverty is through industrialisation and
urbanisation? Between now and 2030, it is expected that the
demand on energy in Latin American countries will increase
by 75%. In short, the question is whether the stabilisation
of greenhouse gases, the pursuit of development and the
adaptation of climate change can be realised simultaneously.
All is not lost. Marine and land pollution can be combated.
Also, recovery policies adopted can be adopted against
erosion. Furthermore, the emission of greenhouse gases can
be contained by the use of renewable energies. Finally, the
development of new techniques will bring even more responses
than are available today. In this regard, it is anticipated
that in five years, when the ACS does an appraisal of the
Plan of Action of Saint-Marc, environment and sustainable
development will no longer be an antinomy, and when an
agreement would have been found on the stabilisation of
greenhouse gases which will limit the dangerous influence of
man on the weather.
