It is ironic that some attendees due at the Peoples Climate Summit called by Bolivian President Evo Morales should be delayed by the volanic eruption in Iceland: climatic conditions are preventing aircraft travel, which is responsible for high carbon emissions per person, and yet stopping people coming together to discuss how to reduce the impact of carbon emissions.
Hopefully the conference will not be badly affected, since it is aiming to bring together and respresent the views and concerns of the poorest two billion people in the world on the subject of climate change. It is often the poorest who are worst affected by climatic disasters – witness how the recent Haiti earthquake killed 250,000 while the earthquake in Chile just afterwards killed under 500, with better infrastructure in Chile being a major factor. The poorest also live in the lands most likely to be flooded and live precariously with little or no reserves against poor harvests, drought and famine.
Morales points out that 75 percent of historical emissions of greenhouse gases originated in “the countries of the North that followed a path of irrational industrialization”.
The summit should provide an interesting contrast to the views of the industrialised and newly industrialising countries which tended to dominate at Kyoto and Copenhagen.
The AIB is looking forward to providing access to some of the very divergent views on climate change in its People’s Choice category at the 2010 AIBs – international media excellence awards