Believe in the science. The mantra always works when climate change politics blurs fact and fiction.
This year, climate change stole the limelight, reaching its peak with the much-awaited Copenhagen talks from Dec. 7 to 18.
For two weeks, all eyes focused on the latest outcome from the landmark conference, and not a single day passed without new developments — and the political drama inside the negotiation rooms — plastered all over newspapers and getting even more exposure during primetime TV.
Now that the negotiators have all jetted back home, it does not mean the attention, and the actions, should also come to a halt.
Regardless of the outcomes of Copenhagen, the world should start taking real action to deal and cope with climate change and its impacts without wasting much more time. Just believe in the science.
The science on climate change is already overwhelming.
In its award-winning fourth assessment report, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in 2007 that it was at least 90 percent certain that humans were warming the planet.
The panel of climate scientists, who shared the Nobel Prize with former US vice president Al Gore, also told rich nations to cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to prevent rising global temperatures.
A recent incident, the leaked emails from a British university, might have slightly undermined the report’s findings, with skeptics seizing the moment to accuse climate scientists of manipulating evidence.
IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri came out in a strong defense of the report, which was subjected to extensive and repeated reviews by experts and governments.
But the report is not the only one warning people that climate change is real.
Countless studies along with mountains of data produced by the best names in the field are out there.
Many, including the latest ones made public during the Copenhagen talks, are too hard to ignore, even for the skeptics.
The latest report by the World Meteorology Organization has warned that the decade 2000-2009 is very likely to be the warmest in history — with data showing that warmer temperatures have caused more frequent floods, severe droughts, snowstorms and heat waves across all continents, including Asia.
A slight 1 percent increase in world temperatures would be enough to cause harvest failure in developing countries, as well as water crisis and coral bleaching.
In Copenhagen, Germanwatch’s Global Climate Risk Index 2010 report, which looks in particular at the impacts of extreme weather events from 1990 up to 2008, disclosed that 600,000 people have died directly from more than 11,000 extreme weather events, and with losses estimated at US$1.7 trillion.
Among the 10 countries most affected in the index, not one is a developed country — confirming the fact that poor countries are often hit much harder and are more vulnerable to climate risks. The index also acknowledges that affected developing countries are also least responsible for causing climate change.
The IPCC also warned at the conference that by 2020, between 75 million and 250 million people in Africa were expected to experience water crisis, while rain-dependent agriculture might decrease by 50 percent in Asia.
Other realities — the melting of the Antarctic, the worst drought in five decades in China, extremely warm weather in South America and Australia — are also too hard to ignore.
With all the facts in hand, taking real and immediate action is a must.
After years of pumping harmful gases into the air, it is about time for developed countries to take responsibility for their actions and start cutting their emissions as well as delivering their commitments on funding and mitigation efforts.
Action to mitigate and adapt to climate change by developing countries cannot be done solely on their own, and must be matched by finance, both for the short and long terms, from developed countries.
Developing countries, including Indonesia, have taken important moves to share the responsibility, although they are not required under the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty to cut emissions.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took a big leap when making a pledge in September’s G20 Summit in Pittsburgh to cut the country’s emissions by 26 percent by 2020 and by 41 percent if developed countries gave financial support.
His move has received praise from many countries and made Indonesia one of the first developing countries to have pledged a voluntary emissions cut.
At home, the challenges are waiting, but the pledge should not end as an empty promise.
In making the promise a reality, Yudhoyono should not only have to make his ministers work hand-in-hand — not as their own masters — but he should also make moves to line up the country’s development policies in the direction of low-carbon economy.
And his main challenge in the coming year will be to stop deforestation, peat degradation and forest fires, which are blamed as the country’s biggest sources of emissions.
The tasks might seem hard, but Yudhoyono has all the scientific facts as well as the experts, environmental activists and people behind his back. Eight of 10 Indonesians, according to Roy Morgan Single Source, the country’s biggest syndicated consumer survey, believe that “if we don’t act now we’ll never control our environmental problems”.
So there’s no need to wait.
With this support — and a strong political will — Yudhoyono can actually contribute to the world’s fight against climate change and safeguard the country’s rich environment and the survival of its people and future generations.
And best of all, Yudhoyono can show the world he is a man of his word.
The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.
