UNDP wants climate justice through trade

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The UN Development Programme (UNDP) for the first time in its human development report has analysed the impact of climate change. The Human Development Report 2007-08 – Fighting climate change : Human solidarity in a divided world is released at a time when the climate change agenda is slowly gaining its entry in the WTO negotiations and the discussions on the review of the work under Kyoto Protocol is slated to take place in Bali in Indonesia in December, this year.

The report documented the impact of climate change across the world also projected the likely scenario for the future. Making out a case for alternative sources of energy and fuels like bio-fuels, the UNDP report said that global trade has a major role to play. It said : "International trade could play a much larger role in the expanding markets for alternative fuels. Brazil is more efficient than either the European Union or the United States in producing ethanol, Moreover, sugar-based ethanol is more efficient in cutting carbon emissions. The problem is that imports of Brazilian ethanol are restricted by high import tariffs. Removing these tariffs would generate gains not just for Brazil, but for climate change mitigation."

However, the report brought to the light, the concerns of deforestation for growing oil crops. It said : "In Indonesia, every $ one generated, through deforestation to grow palm oil (oil palm crop) would translate into a $ 50-100 loss if the reduced carbon capacity could be traded on the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Beyond these market failures, the loss of rainforests represents the erosion of a resource that plays a vital role in the lives of the poor, in the provision of the ecosystem services and in sustaining biodiversity." It advocated the potential of carbon markets in the creation of incentives to avoid deforestation.

Again dealing with the trade angle, the report said that the rising prices for oil and natural gas was one of the reason why coal figured prominently in the present planned energy mix of major emitters like China, India and US. In this context, it advocated the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology which "holds out the promise of coal-fired power generation with near-zero emissions."