Imposing Kyoto-style emssions restrictions on poor countries would be 'immoral' says NGO coalition

Buenos Aires -- Members of the Sustainable Development Network today criticized attempts by radical environmental activist organizations to thwart development of poor countries with a new agreement that would limit global greenhouse gas emissions.

In response to the grotesque eco-imperialism of global environmental groups at the Buenos Aires COP-10 climate change meeting, Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Costa Rican author of a new report* by the Sustainable Development Network, commented:

'It would be immoral to impose Kyoto-style emissions restrictions on poor countries like India, China and Brazil and others. These restrictions would harm the poor, delaying their access to cleaner, more efficient energies and technologies of all kinds. Meanwhile, Kyoto and other climate control policies would do absolutely nothing to help the poor to cope with potential problems of climate change.'

Hidalgo concluded that 'The best policies to help the poor today are those which strike at the heart of the problem: poverty. The only way to eliminate poverty is through development, not emissions controls.'

Environmental activists promote Kyoto-style emissions restrictions on the basis that climate change could result in harms in the future. Yet today, millions of people around the world suffer and die each year from lack of proper sanitation, malnutrition and diseases such as malaria and diarrhoea which were long ago eradicated in wealthy countries.

Members of the Sustainable Development Network believe that development is the best way to enable people to eliminate these problems. In contrast, emissions restrictions would slow development and thereby perpetuate disease, misery and suffering. The solution - both now and in the future - is to empower the poor, enabling people to benefit from new technologies, leading to wealth, health and a clean environment.

The Sustainable Development Network report says that wealthy countries are generally resilient to problems and uncertainties, including those presented by climate, because they have adopted institutions that are more compatible with human nature:
 

• property rights that are well-defined, enforceable and transferable;
• the ability to make and form contracts, but also the freedom from contract;
• the rule of law, administered by an independent and fair judicial system;
• open trade free of vested interests and artificial barriers to trade; and
• good governance enabled by transparency, accountability amongst elected officials, bureaucrats and civil servants (enhanced by adherence to the above institutions).

Adoption of these institutions is the most effective way to insure against the uncertainties of the future, including those associated with climate change.

Global agreements under which poor countries agree to reduce emissions would slow development by limiting access to energy resources. In addition, the "carrots" offered to induce agreement (in the form of foreign aid and "technology transfers") would undermine good governance by making politicians less accountable to their citizens.

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Notes
Climate change and sustainable development: A blueprint from the Sustainable Development Network, December 2004, 12 authors.

The Sustainable Development Network (www.sdnetwork.net) is a global coalition of individuals and NGOs who believe that sustainable development is about promoting progress and eliminating poverty. SDN representatives are participating at COP-10 in Buenos Aires to represent its views to delegates and participants